Trump Has Bonkers Theory for How Tariffs Will Save TikTok
What can’t Donald Trump’s tariffs fix?

President Donald Trump has once again swooped in to save TikTok, after the president’s sweeping tariffs undermined a deal with China.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday.
The president said that he planned to sign an executive order to delay the enforcement of the U.S. TikTok ban for an additional 75 days.
Trump continued to say that U.S. officials hoped to continue negotiations with China, “who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs.”
“This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security! We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote.
Trump appeared to suggest that his “reciprocal tariff” policy, which placed a baseline 10 percent tariff on nearly every country in the world, was some kind of chip in negotiations over TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance. In 2024, Congress passed a law that required the firm to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a non-Chinese owner, or see it banned in the U.S. Trump has now swooped in twice to rescue the app from going dark (after putting it on Congress’s radar in the first place).
In reality, Trump’s decision to impose steep tariffs on China has only gotten in the way of negotiations. The White House had nearly reached an agreement with China on TikTok, but the country hit the breaks after Trump’s tariff announcement Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
After Trump imposed a 34 percent tariff on Chinese imports to the U.S. earlier this week, in addition to two previous rounds of 10 percent duties, China responded in kind, levying its own 34 percent tariff on all imports from the U.S. on Friday.
In 2024, the U.S. imported $438.9 billion worth of Chinese goods, and China imported $143.5 worth of American goods, according to the U.S. trade representative.
Trump previously signed an executive order in January to keep the app running for U.S. users for 75 days, “to permit my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok.” The grace period was set to expire Saturday, April 5.
This story has been updated.