US President Donald Trump is getting vocal on the popular Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok. From now on, his statements will be available regularly on TikTok. The new account was released by the White House on Tuesday (August 19) through a short video of Trump. In the 27-second video on the account named @WhiteHouse, Trump can be heard saying, “I am your voice.” The caption read, “America, we are back, what’s up TikTok?” Within an hour of posting the video, the account gained about 4,500 followers. (News Guardian)
Trump himself also attaches some additional importance to the app. Last year, the Republican camp used TikTok’s short videos extensively to increase Trump’s public opinion among young voters, surpassing Kamala Harris. The account named @RealDonaldTrump was not Trump’s presidential account. During the election campaign, the number of followers on Trump’s TikTok account exceeded 15 million. He last posted there on November 5, 2024, the day of the election. In addition, the US president is quite active on his own social media platform, Truth Social. Trump also posted on the Kalebhadra X account.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said that the Trump administration is working to promote all of President Trump’s historic successes for the American people. For this, the maximum number of people and media will be used. She also said that Trump’s speech on TikTok was a hit during the presidential campaign. We want to move forward on the basis of that success. We will communicate with the people in ways that no previous administration has done.
However, US lawmakers have always been suspicious of TikTok. They fear that the Chinese government is easily able to seize sensitive information of US citizens due to the use of this app. A previous intelligence report claimed that the app’s owners are loyal to the Chinese government and may be trying to influence US citizens (in Chinese interests) through them.
The Biden administration has tried to take strict action against TikTok. An order from 2024 states that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, must either sell its US subsidiary or make significant progress in the sale by January 19 of this year. Otherwise, TikTok will not be able to operate in the US after the specified period. However, Trump decided not to implement the Biden administration’s order during his second term in the White House on January 20. Trump has extended the deadline for ByteDance three times so far. The third period will end on September 17.
Meanwhile, Trump is trying to reach a deal between ByteDance and US investors. Many lawmakers are angry with Trump for extending ByteDance’s deadline. They allege that Trump is completely ignoring US national security concerns due to Chinese control over TikTok. Not only that, Trump is using the administration law to his own advantage.