Former President Donald Trump has embraced TikTok after he tried to ban the popular video streaming app over national security concerns while in office.
Trump posted his first video on the app on Saturday while attending an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Newark, New Jersey. In the video, Trump is accompanied by UFC president and long-time ally Dana White.
“The president is using TikTok right now,” White said.
“It would be my pleasure,” Trump responded.
In 2020, Trump attempted to suppress TikTok through executive action out of concern that the Chinese government might have access to sensitive U.S. user data on the app, which is owned by Chinese technology giant ByteDance. A federal court later blocked the effort.
Trump has recently distanced himself from the push to ban the app, telling CNBC in March that while he still believed the app posed a national security threat, getting rid of it would only strengthen Facebook.
“You can make Facebook bigger without TikTok, but I think Facebook is the enemy of the people,” Trump said.
Trump’s appearance on the platform comes as the platform faces new pressure after a New York jury on Thursday found the former president’s own social media platform, Truth Social, guilty of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump has long denied any wrongdoing and made clear he would appeal the historic verdict.
The stock fell 5% overall the day after the verdict, adding to the company’s losses in the first quarter alone, even as some Trump supporters stepped up their efforts to buy more shares of the former president’s social media platform. Over $300 million.
Joining TikTok may not help Truth Social’s bottom line, but it could prove to be an important avenue for Trump as he looks to chip away at the advantage Democrats have traditionally enjoyed among young voters ahead of the election. Nearly one-third of Americans under the age of 30 say they get news from TikTok, according to Pew Research Center data.
In less than 24 hours, Trump accumulated 2 million followers. As of Sunday afternoon, his only video had been viewed more than 34 million times.
The Biden campaign created a TikTok account back in February, although the Biden administration has raised similar concerns about the app as it relates to privacy and national security.
In April, Biden signed bipartisan legislation that would ban the platform from being listed in the U.S. unless it is sold to a non-Chinese company within nine months, which could be extended by three months if a sale is underway.
TikTok is currently challenging the law in federal court, saying it is unconstitutional and infringes on free speech. The company said there is no evidence that the Chinese government has influenced what Americans see on the app, nor is there any evidence that Chinese officials use TikTok to spy on U.S. citizens.