December 16, 2025
Let’s talk about the TikTok ban.
I want to give you an update to a story I reported before I go to sleep tonight –yes it’s true President Trump very publicly did sign an executive order that delayed the TikTok ban until December 16th. Which is today. But it turns out TikTok actually has five more weeks to sell the company and turn over operational control to the Americans or it will be banned. More on that in a second…
But Lisa how could that be? What happened to the December 16th deadline…well – turns out very quietly– nine days after trump signed the executive order that banned TikTok on December 16th – trump signed another executive order. And this one says that he’s giving TikTok 120 more days. 120 days from September 25th is January 23 of 2026.
In this executive order trump outlines a framework deal that he says reaches the threshold of a qualified divestiture – meaning – it meets all the requirements outlined in the protecting Americans form foreign adversary controlled applications act to keep TikTok alive in the United States. He talks about how under this deal — Bytedance, TikTok’s parent company won’t have more than 20% stake in the company. He talks about the American investors he’s found to purchase the US operation of TikTok. The executive order says this framework deal puts the operation of TikTok’s powerful algorithm and code, as well as content moderation decisions under the control of the new American owners and prevents data from being stored in a way that it can be accessed by a foreign adversary.
Now –as I told you in this special report, Oracle – a US company — has been TikTok’s data security partner for years and American data has been stored on US soil under US control for years. That’s not new. But most importantly here — nowhere in this executive order does trump say China has signed off on this deal nor does it say the US will own the algorithm. Which the law specifically says has to happen. And as I told you in that video yesterday – all China has said about all this is — they will continue to work with the United States to properly address issues related to TikTok.
So – TikTok may have gotten a reprieve from the December 16th ban – but can the trump administration get China to actually agree to this framework by January 23 and get the company transferred over to American owners? And while trump says it meets the legal definition of a sale – is it really? Even some lawmakers who are fans of TikTok have questions and the American investors involved also have questions. Bottom line — for now – TikTok users can take a breath – until January 23rd.
Read the executive order here.
