President Donald Trump will give TikTok’s owner more time to comply with a federal law mandating that it cannot be owned by a Chinese company because of national security concerns. 

The extension will give ByteDance, the Chinese-based company that owns TikTok, another 90 days to find an American buyer. TikTok was first set to go dark in January 2025, but Trump has extended that deadline multiple times. 

“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. “This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”

Trump has previously expanded the deadline twice, once in January and then again in an April executive order that directed the Justice Department not to enforce the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” until June 19. 

TikTok will now have until September to facilitate a deal with an American company or investor. 

During his first term in office, Trump first moved to ban TikTok via executive order, a move that was later blocked. Several years later, President Joe Biden signed a bill mandating the sale of TikTok into law in April 2024 after broad Congressional support. 

Days before Trump took office in January, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress was justified in passing the ban because of concerns about the Chinese government using TikTok to harvest the private data of millions of Americans. 

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court wrote. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”

The court was unconvinced that the ban amounted to restrictions on free speech. 

“It is not clear that the Act itself directly regulates protected expressive activity, or conduct with an expressive component. Indeed, the Act does not regulate the creator petitioners at all. And it directly regulates ByteDance Ltd. and TikTok Inc. only through the divestiture requirement,” the court wrote.

Colonel Nathan McCormack, who was tasked with helping advise the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Israel-related matters, has been removed from his position after his anti-Israel social media posts were brought to light.

McCormack, who was the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate, according to his LinkedIn, posted several controversial tweets on his X account. He called Israel a “death cult” and referred to the Israeli government as “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies,” among other things, Jewish News Syndicate reported.

A Joint Staff official told The Daily Wire that the Department of Defense said McCormack was removed from his position with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and that the matter is being handed over to the U.S. Army for further action.

The official added that McCormack’s posts do not reflect the position of the Joint Staff or the Department of Defense.

“Our global alliances and partnerships are vital to our national security, enhancing our collective defense, deterrence, and operational reach,” the official said.

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McCormack’s semi-anonymous account has been deleted following JNS’s report.

The J5 directorate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff advises the chairman of the Joint Chiefs on military strategy, planning, and policy across a wide range of national security issues. McCormack’s role tasked him with preparing senior leadership to speak with partner nations —including Israel.

McCormack made the posts on an X account where he calls himself “Nate,” but has posted several times about his job and even shared a photo of his Meritorious Service Medal certificate.

Since assuming his position — which his LinkedIn says he began in June 2024 — McCormack has posted numerous times about his views on the Jewish state, especially after Hamas’s October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.

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“The Western states go to great lengths to avoid criticism of Israel, much out of Holocaust guilt,” McCormack tweeted in April.

In May, he posted that “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies are determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land.”

In April 2024, McCormack questioned if the United States was a proxy of Israel.

“I’ve lately been considering whether we might be Israel’s proxy and not realized it yet,” he posted. “Our worst ‘ally.’ We get literally nothing out of the ‘partnership’ other than the enmity of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”

According to JNS, in response to a post about Gazans potentially seeking refuge outside the Gaza Strip, McCormack claimed that Israel aims “to expel them and cleanse ‘Eretz Israel’ of ethnic Palestinians.”

Before starting his role with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but while still serving as a U.S. Army officer, McCormack shared his views following Hamas’s October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.

“I agree that Israel has an absolute right to respond militarily, and that civilians may legally be caught in the crossfire, but you are ignoring the requirement of proportionality,” McCormack posted. “Israel’s responses always (always—not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians.”

McCormack has also disclosed details about his official duties on the account, claiming in August 2024 that “we” warned Israel it would be “fuxked” if it escalated into an offensive against Lebanon. Despite the warning, Israel launched an invasion two months later and decimated the terrorist group Hezbollah. He also shared information about his conversations and briefings with Israeli Defense Forces officers.

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McCormack’s account also shared information about his movements and work trips being canceled, according to JNS.

On Monday, McCormack reportedly claimed the Department of Defense endorses the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers.

“Along with the World Health Organization and United Nations, we (Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Intelligence Community) consider the Gaza Health Ministry figures to be generally reliable (though not precise),” he wrote, “but probably less so now than they were originally due to the general destruction and chaos in Gaza.”

The Department of Defense has strict social media guidelines, including telling service members to “avoid use of Department of Defense titles, insignia, uniforms or symbols in a way that could imply DoD sanction or endorsement of content on your personal page.”