After the bipartisan TikTok law was signed by former President Joe Biden in April, ByteDance said it did not have plans to sell the platform and fought the statute in court for months. China also rebuked Washington over the divestment push, though more recently it appears to be softening its stance.

Jimmy Donaldson — better known online as MrBeast — isn’t in the TikTok bidding race just yet, according to a representative for the YouTube star

MrBeast, the popular YouTube star and the internet’s highest-earning content creator, is holding discussions with several groups that are interested in buying TikTok before a possible ban, according to a spokesperson.

An executive order is an instruction from the president which has the weight of the law behind it. But Trump's order does not overturn the ban. Instead it tells the US attorney general not to enforce the law for now - something experts had expected would be his first move.

Trump said the government should be a half owner of TikTok's U.S. business in return for keeping the app alive, and threatened China with tariffs if it failed to approve a deal.