The White House opened an official TikTok account on the 19th, leveraging this short video app—used by over 170 million Americans—to promote President Trump’s policy information.
According to foreign media reports, Trump has a special fondness for TikTok and believes the platform will help him win the support of young voters in the November 2024 presidential election and thus defeat his Democratic opponent, Harris.
However, some Washington lawmakers are concerned that the data of TikTok’s American users could fall into the hands of the Chinese government. Trump has been making efforts to facilitate the acquisition of TikTok by American investors from the Chinese company ByteDance. ByteDance is the parent company of TikTok.
The report notes that past intelligence assessments have determined TikTok’s owners are subject to the Chinese government and may be used to influence the American public.
The new White House account, @whitehouse, went live Tuesday evening. Its first video featured a clip of Trump’s speech in which he said, “I am your voice.” The video’s subtitles also said, “America, we’re back!”
Trump’s TikTok account @realdonaldtrump, used for his presidential campaign last year, has over 15 million followers. Trump primarily relies on his Truth Social account to post updates, and occasionally posts on the X platform.