Trump signed EO 14258, second order directing DOJ not to enforce TikTok divestment law

On April 4, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14258, "Extending the TikTok Enforcement Delay," directing the Department of Justice not to enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (Public Law 118-50) and extending the non-enforcement period through June 19, 2025. The order also retroactively immunized all past non-compliance dating back to January 19, 2025 — the statutory deadline — barring the DOJ from ever taking enforcement action for any violations during the entire non-enforcement period.

EO 14258 was the second consecutive executive order directing non-enforcement of the TikTok divestment statute. The first, EO 14166, was issued on January 20, 2025. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act had been enacted by a bipartisan Congress and signed by President Biden; it required ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19, 2025, or cease U.S. operations. Rather than enforce the law or seek congressional amendment, Trump used successive executive orders to direct the DOJ to stand down and to immunize past violations — an assertion of presidential power to suspend a duly enacted statute without legislative action.

A third non-enforcement order, EO 14310, was subsequently issued on June 19, 2025, extending the suspension further to September 17, 2025. The pattern across all three orders reflects the same structural claim: that the president may unilaterally nullify enforcement of a law enacted by Congress.