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Days after reports that Trump is planning to appear in a town hall on X, a platform he hasn’t been active on since 2021, Trump has joined another platform he’s publicly criticized: TikTok.
On Saturday evening Trump posted a launch video on the social media app via a new verified @realDonaldTrump account that shows the former president waving to fans while attending the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Newark, New Jersey.
In the video, UFC CEO Dana White introduces Trump with “The president is now on TikTok,” followed by Trump replying with “It’s my honor.”
An adviser to Trump’s campaign told Politico that the move is “one of the ways we’re going to reach out to voters,” noting that “TikTok skews towards a younger audience.” Both Biden and Trump are aggressively going after younger voters this election season.
The move is an interesting one given Trump’s history with TikTok. During his presidency, Trump attempted to have the app banned over national security concerns. While his efforts were eventually blocked in federal courts, President Biden recently signed a law that will force TikTok's owner, ByteDance, to sell it within the year or see a ban in US app stores.
Worth noting, Biden also has a presence on the app.
Since Biden’s signing of the law, Trump has changed his tune on TikTok, claiming that while the app is a national security threat, banning it would only help Meta, which he told CNBC earlier this year is “an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media.” Trump has also accused Biden of trying to ban TikTok in order to help his “friends” at Meta.