Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump now has an account on the brief video app he as soon as tried to ban.
Trump’s TikTok account, which was launched Saturday night time, contained only one put up as of Sunday morning. Within the video, UFC CEO Dana White declares, “The president is now on TikTok,” whereas Trump chimes in, “It is my honor.” The remainder of the video is generally footage of Trump strolling by the group at a UFC occasion in Newark, New Jersey.
Apparently, the video has been seen greater than 31 million instances, whereas Trump already has 1.7 million followers — greater than 5 instances greater than the Biden-Harris account.
“Political candidate creates social media account” would not usually be massive information, however the Trump marketing campaign’s transfer is a reminder that whilst TikTok faces an unsure future in the USA, politicians are nonetheless keen to succeed in its 170 million American customers. The platform may very well be particularly invaluable to Trump, who seems to have made inroads with younger, disengaged voters — the type of voters who may be on TikTok.
Trump’s stance on TikTok seems to have modified — after attempting to ban TikTok when he was president, he wrote on Fact Social in Could: “Simply so everybody is aware of, particularly the youth, Crooked Joe Biden is chargeable for the TikTok ban.” (Biden just lately signed a invoice that may ban TikTok until its dad or mum firm, ByteDance, sells the app inside a 12 months; TikTok is difficult the invoice in court docket.)
Whereas longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon accused the previous president of failing due to the affect of billionaire Jeff Yass (who owns a big stake in TikTok), Trump insisted that banning TikTok would solely strengthen Fb, which he describes as “the enemy of the folks.” .
In fact, becoming a member of TikTok and racking up greater than 1 million followers remains to be only a footnote in Trump’s massive week — one through which he grew to become the primary former US president to be convicted of a felony.