Former President Donald Trump has made a surprising move by joining the popular social media platform TikTok, despite his previous attempts to ban it on national security grounds during his presidency. In 2020, Trump signed an executive order trying to ban the platform due to its ties to China, but the attempt was blocked by US courts.
Since then, Trump has criticized efforts to restrict TikTok, claiming that doing so would only benefit Facebook-owner Meta. Trump has quickly gained over 3.6 million followers on TikTok since launching his account on Saturday, using the platform as a tool to communicate directly with the American people.
In contrast, President Joe Biden, who is also using TikTok for his re-election campaign, has only amassed 340,000 followers – significantly fewer than Trump. Biden recently signed a bill giving TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, nine months to divest the app or face being blocked in the US over concerns about data sharing with the Chinese government.
The move by Biden took many of TikTok’s 170 million US users by surprise. Some experts believe that Trump’s rapid following on the platform may be due to users seeing him as a potential savior of TikTok in the face of a ban.
Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, stated that the former president has been successful in reaching young voters through TikTok. His first video on the platform, showing him at a mixed martial arts event, has already garnered over 60 million views.
This move by Trump comes after his recent conviction on multiple counts of falsifying business records in connection to hush-money payments to adult film performer Stormy Daniels. Despite acknowledging the national security risks posed by TikTok, Trump argued against a ban, claiming it would only strengthen Facebook.
In addition to TikTok, Trump has also launched his own social media platform, Truth Social, in 2022. With a majority stake in its parent company, Trump Media, Trump continues to make waves in the social media landscape.
