Trump signed fourth consecutive executive order directing DOJ not to enforce PAFACA TikTok divestment law, extending unilateral statutory suspension through December

On September 16, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14350, "Further Extending the TikTok Enforcement Delay," directing the Department of Justice to refrain from any enforcement action under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) through December 16, 2025. PAFACA was enacted in April 2024 with rare bipartisan supermajority support, requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. operations by a statutory deadline or face an outright ban. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law's constitutionality in January 2025, removing any First Amendment basis for non-enforcement.

EO 14350 was the fourth in a consecutive series of executive directives suspending the statute: Trump first ordered DOJ non-enforcement on January 20, 2025, followed by EO 14258 on April 4 and EO 14310 on June 19. Each order extended the statutory deadline unilaterally, without congressional authorization. No provision of PAFACA grants the President authority to waive or delay the enforcement deadline; nor does any general executive authority supply that power against a duly enacted and judicially validated statute.

The administration's stated rationale was to allow additional time for a divestiture deal between ByteDance and prospective U.S. buyers. No deal had closed by the September deadline. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other legislators publicly accused Trump of "flouting the law." Legal scholars noted that the pattern — four successive orders overriding the same statute — resembled the administration's simultaneous Impoundment Control Act violations, and represented a systematic assertion that the executive could unilaterally suspend congressional mandates it found inconvenient.