Donald Trump Joins TikTok 4 Years After Trying To Ban It As A President
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
By Sukhbir Cheema — 04 Jun 2024, 04:35 PM
Former US President Donald Trump is now on TikTok, the app he once tried to ban as president
Announcing his arrival in a typically unusual manner, the 45th US president was hell-bent on banning TikTok.
During his time in office between 2016 and 2020, Trump tried to ban the Chinese social media platform.
Back then, Trump had criticised TikTok as a national security threat.
Trump posted his first TikTok video on 1 June and it's already garnered 73.5 million views as at the time of writing
Posting from his verified account @realDonaldTrump, Trump was flanked by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief executive officer Dana White, who declared, "The president is now on TikTok."
"It's my honour," Trump responded.
The rest of the video shows various shots of the crowd at a UFC fight in Newark, New Jersey, set to American Bad Ass by Kid Rock.
Trump is on TikTok to entice the younger generation to vote him in the upcoming US Presidential Election
"Reaching out on multiple platforms is vital, and TikTok skews towards a younger audience," a campaign adviser revealed to Politico.
During Trump's presidency, he had prevented US residents from downloading TikTok. However, his efforts to ban the app were thwarted by the courts.
Under Joe Biden's administration, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is currently being pressured to sell its shares.
However, despite efforts to ban TikTok, both Trump and Biden, who are running for the presidency, are using the app to engage voters. The irony.
