Donald Trump joined TikTok with a UFC appearance video. He tried to ban the app as POTUS
Former President and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump joined TikTok, posting a debut video Saturday from a UFC fight.
"The President, is now on TikTok," UFC president Dana White said standing next to Trump.
"It's my honor," Trump responded, before the video sliced together shots of him and the crowd at the match in Newark, New Jerse.
Although Pew research shows an increasing number of young people get their news from the short form video app, TikTok is a politically complicated topic. Trump unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok though executive action in 2020. President Joe Biden signed a law in April forcing the Chinese parent company ByteDance to spinoff the app; the law is being challenged in court.
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Trump majority shareholder in his own social media company
For Trump, joining TikTok could also be a complicated business decision. He is the majority stakeholder of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent of his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump Media reported tens of millions of dollars in net losses in 2023 and hundreds of millions in the first quarter of 2024, though the company blamed the latter on the price of going public.
In two months on the stock market, share prices have fluctuated wildly, and experts compare it to meme stocks for its overvaluation and volatility. In April, the company announced it would be adding live TV streaming to its offerings.
“The Trump Campaign has obvious reasons for opening a TikTok account, and that arrangement will have no effect on Truth Social’s operations or future plans," a Trump Media spokesperson said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.
Trump tried to ban TikTok, divestment legislation passed under Biden under legal threat
Trump cited national security concerns when he signed an executive order in 2020 ordering ByteDance to sell or spin off its U.S. assets within 90 days.
The executive order was challenged in court and never came to fruition, but Congress has overwhelmingly passed a law under the Biden administration that forces ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations within the year or else face a nationwide ban.
Despite Trump's own efforts to ban the app, he has criticized Biden for doing the same, posting on Truth Social "Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok."
Biden joined TikTok in February. The Make America Great Again Inc. Super PAC joined TikTok in May. With one video over the last two days, Trump's new account has amassed more than 3.7 million followers, while "Biden-Harris HQ" has 345,000.
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi, Riley Beggin and Jessica Guynn