President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of a ban of popular short-video app TikTok that was slated to be shuttered on January 19.

While signing the order, Trump suggested the United States government should be a half owner of TikTok’s U.S. business in return for keeping the app alive and warned that he could impose tariffs on China if Beijing failed to approve a U.S. deal with TikTok, a Reuters report from Washington stated yesterday.

The executive order capped 48 hours of legal maneuvering and political intrigue that left millions of US TikTokkers struggling for answers about the fate of their app.

The drama began Saturday when the short video app used by 170 million Americans was taken offline for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Sunday.

The app and website were operational on Monday, but TikTok is still not available for download in the Apple and Google app stores. Trump’s order, signed hours after he was inaugurated on Monday, mirrors his earlier promises and directs the attorney general to not enforce the law to give his team time “to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok”.

But the legality of Trump’s executive order is unclear. The law requiring the divestiture was passed by big majorities in Congress, signed by President Joe Biden, and upheld by a unanimous Supreme Court.

The law also does not grant Trump authority to extend the deadline unless ByteDance has “binding agreements” to sell TikTok and it is unclear if any agreements exist. ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment by reuters on Tuesday.

Representative Frank Pallone said Trump‘s order is “circumventing national security legislation passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress.”

While signing the executive order Monday evening, Trump said that he “could see” the U.S. government taking a 50 percent stake in TikTok and as part of that stake, the US could police the site.

Trump added that if a deal isn’t approved by China, “there’s no value. So if we create that value, why aren’t we entitled to like half?” He said the company could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The U.S. has never banned a major social media platform.

(Photo of US President Donald Trump courtesy White House’s official X account)