President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs not only cratered the U.S. stock market, but are now blamed with sinking a TikTok sale his administration had been facilitating for months.
The social media giant’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, pulled out of a “finalized” deal this week after it became clear Trump was serious about hitting China with a fresh wave of tariffs, reported the New York Post, citing a source familiar with discussions.
Tariffs rolled out Wednesday included a baseline of 10 percent for countries across the globe, but were even steeper for China. The nation was hit with a 34 percent tariff on top of existing import taxes put in place during MAGA 2.0’s first month.
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TikTok’s U.S. assets were set to be bought by a company majority-owned by U.S. investors, the Post reported, which would have satisfied a requirement to keep TikTok online in America that was passed by Congress last spring.
Word of fresh tariffs on Beijing led to the deal crumbling, the Post reported. That came just days before a midnight Friday deadline that required ByteDance to either sell or see TikTok be banned across the country.
Trump pushed back TikTok’s deadline by 75 days on Friday, marking the second time the White House has given a last-second reprieve ahead of a ban.
TikTok will now have until June 18 to complete a sale. While the Post did not say which company had a deal “finalized” this week, reports have listed U.S. corporations like Walmart, Amazon, and Oracle as having shown interest.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed.”
Trump’s initial TikTok extension came during his first week in office and was also for 75 days.
Congress passed legislation with bipartisan support last April to have TikTok banned stateside if it did not find a new owner for its U.S. assets, as lawmakers said the data it scraped from users made it a national security threat due to its ties to China.
Trump campaigned on saving TikTok and said in January he would do everything he could to keep the app “alive” in America—despite him publicly acknowledging it was a potential threat to U.S. interests.
While both parties have united against TikTok—at least in its current state—the app remains hugely popular across the country. A ban going into place may have hurt the White House politically at a time when it appears particularly vulnerable.
Vice President J.D. Vance, who was made the point person on securing TikTok’s future in America, was adamant this week that there would be a sale by the April 5 deadline.
Such a deal never came to fruition, however, and the White House has been forced to direct much of its attention to propping up Trump’s tariffs and spinning how the depletion of Americans’ retirement accounts will ultimately be a good thing.
“We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs,” Trump said in his post about TikTok, adding, “We do not want TikTok to go dark.”
