Donald Trump joins TikTok after previous warning against the app

FFormer US President Donald Trump has joined TikTok. His first video, posted on Saturday night, shows him arriving for a fight at UFC 302. The move to TikTok comes despite Trump’s previous attempts to ban the app as president in 2020.

Trump’s first TikTok video shows him joining forces with UFC podcaster and color commentator Joe Rogan. Facing the camera, Rogan says, “The president is now on Tik Tok,” and Trump responds, “It’s an honor.”

The video then turns into a montage of the crowd’s reactions to Trump’s arrival, including a spectator taking a photo with the former president, who can be seen pointing and waving at fans. These videos are short snippets, apparently recorded with a digital phone camera, with Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass” playing in the background. This is the same song Trump played when he entered the arena.

Trump ends the video clip by saying, “It was a good ride, right?”

The former president and current Republican favorite for renomination attended the UFC fight between Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier in Newark, New Jersey, and his arrival on TikTok came days after he was found guilty in the historic silence trial.

Trump was convicted of 34 counts related to activities related to the 2016 election. He was accused of falsifying business records that showed secret payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels. The guilty verdict results in the first criminal conviction of a former US president. Trump’s next sentencing is scheduled for July 11.

During his presidency, Trump attempted to ban TikTok. He signed an executive order to ban the video platform unless it was acquired by an American company, claiming the Chinese government was using the video-sharing service to surveil millions of Americans. He said apps owned by companies in China “threaten the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.” in the executive order.

Although the executive order has never gone into effect since it was struck down in federal court, Trump changed his mind earlier this year in March.

President Biden signed into law a bill in April that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if the China-based owner of the social media platform does not sell its stake within a year. However, Trump said there could be some use in keeping TikTok.

see more information:Why Trump changed on TikTok

“Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok who love it,” he told CNBC. “There are a lot of kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”

Many young voters use TikTok to get news, according to a recent Pew Research study, which found that a third of American adults under 30 regularly access the app for news. According to the study, this number has grown substantially since 2020.

In the 2020 election, a major factor contributing to President Biden’s victory over Trump was the youth vote. According to another Pew Research Center study, Biden voters were generally younger than Trump voters, with nearly half of Biden voters under the age of 50 compared to 39% of Trump voters.
Among all US adults, the study shares that the number of those who receive news from TikTok regularly it more than quadrupled, going from 3% in 2020 to 14% in 2023.