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President Donald Trump said tariffs on China could depend on a deal over ownership of TikTok, after signing an executive order to keep the popular short-form video platform online in the US for 75 days.
Within hours of his inauguration on MondayTrump delayed a deadline by which TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, had to sell its stake in the app or face a ban from the country.
Trump argued that the US “should be entitled to half TikTok” if the app continued to operate after that restriction and that he “certainly” could impose tariffs on China if it rejected the deal, which he said would be a “hostile act”.
Trump added that tariffs could be as high as 100 percent. “I think ultimately [Beijing] he would approve it because we would impose tariffs on China,” Trump he said at the signing of the order in the Oval Office. “I’m not saying I would, but you sure could.”
The 75-day delay for the “seize or prohibit” law is designed “to allow [Trump’s] Administration the opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action regarding TikTok,” the executive order reads.
It also said that the companies that distribute and host TikTok – which includes app stores Apple and Google, as well as cloud services provider Oracle – will not be held liable for violations of the law in the meantime. Under the law, service providers risked fines of $5,000 per user.
TikTok became temporarily unavailable to about 170 million US users when the ban went into effect at midnight on Sunday, after the law was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday.
But that resumed work a few hours laterand the company says Trump has given adequate assurances that service providers won’t face penalties.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew went on a charm offensive after Trump indicated during his campaign that he hoped to “save” the app. Chew attended the inauguration on Monday alongside tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, after showering Trump with public praise over the weekend.
Some US politicians and security officials believe the Chinese government could use TikTok to access Americans’ personal information, which could facilitate espionage, and use the app’s algorithm to spread propaganda. TikTok denies that Beijing has any control over the app.
TikTok previously said the sale was technologically unfeasible within the law’s time frame. Beijing has made it known that it opposes the sale.
Despite this, Trump suggested that if the app continues to operate in the US after the extension, the country should be paid “half the value of TikTok”, adding: “If I don’t do the work, it’s worthless. If I make a deal, it will be worth maybe a trillion dollars.”
last week, The Financial Times reported that Chinese officials have discussed using Musk, a close confidant of Trump, as an intermediary in a potential sale of TikTok’s US operations.
Musk on Sunday lamented the “unbalanced” situation between TikTok’s continued presence in the US and the lack of access to its social media site X in China, where Western technology platforms are generally banned. “Something has to change,” he said.
The Tesla boss rarely comments on issues sensitive to Beijing, given his extensive business interests in China, an important market and manufacturing center for his electric vehicle company.
Beijing did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements threatening tariffs if it does not agree to a deal with TikTok.
On Monday, China’s foreign ministry said any decision regarding TikTok’s ownership should be made “in accordance with market principles and should be determined by the companies themselves.”
Additional reporting by Aime Williams in Washington
