Donald Trump amassed over three million followers in days after joining TikTok, a move highlighting his shifting stance on the Chinese-owned app. The launch follows legislation signed by President Joe Biden requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months or face a ban over national security concerns.
From Presidential Threat to UFC Walk-On
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Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump officially joined TikTok, uploading a first video that shows him greeting fans at an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey. The debut post featured footage of Trump at the Prudential Center on a Saturday night where he received a hero’s welcome. Speaking in the clip, Trump told the camera, That was a good walk-on, right?
By Sunday morning, Trump had gathered more than 1.1 million followers on the platform, with his first post garnering over 1 million likes and 24 million views. Within a matter of days, that follower count climbed past three million. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung stated about the launch, We will leave no front undefended and this represents the continued outreach to a younger audience consuming pro-Trump and anti-Biden content.
Cheung added, There’s no place better than a UFC event to launch President Trump’s Tik Tok, where he received a hero’s welcome and thousands of fans cheered him on.
Legislative Pressures and Changing Political Stances
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Trump’s arrival on the platform represents a sharp reversal from his presidency in 2020, when he supported a similar bill and attempted to prohibit TikTok through an executive order citing national security threats from mobile applications developed by Chinese companies. Courts blocked that initial action after TikTok sued. This year, however, Trump developed a soft corner for the app, noting in a social media post that eliminating TikTok would double the business of Facebook, which he called a true enemy of the people!
That shift arrives on the heels of major federal action. Democratic President Joe Biden signed legislation approved by the US Senate that targets TikTok over its Chinese ownership. Under the law, TikTok can continue operating in the United States only if it is sold within nine months. While Biden signed the bill in April, his own campaign joined the platform in February to work with influencers. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance and boasts approximately 170 million users in the United States, predominantly skewing toward a younger demographic that traditional television campaigns struggle to reach.
A Campaign Strategy Post-Verdict
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The timing of Trump’s TikTok launch coincides with a historic legal verdict. A 12-member New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to a porn actress ahead of the 2016 election, making him the first US president convicted of a crime. Trump has maintained his innocence and plans to appeal the verdict, with sentencing scheduled for July 11. Alina Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, told BBC that Trump would run for the presidential post even from jail.
By joining TikTok, Trump is reaching out to potential voters who may not closely follow politics or traditional news sources, targeting young people and minority voters, particularly Latino and Black men. The move also serves as a direct statement against the Biden administration’s recent efforts to hamper the app’s functioning in the US market.
ByteDance Algorithm Denials and US Regulatory Scrutiny
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As political maneuvering unfolds around the app, TikTok continues to face regulatory and corporate hurdles. The platform recently denied reports alleging it is creating a separate version of its recommendation algorithm specifically for American users, distinct from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. While a Reuters report suggested that developing a distinct algorithm could lay the groundwork for a future divestment of US assets, TikTok labeled the article misleading, maintaining it has no immediate plans for divesting its US assets.
Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could potentially share sensitive user data—including browsing history, location, and biometric identifiers—with the Chinese government. TikTok has consistently stated that it has never shared such data and would not do so if asked.
