Christian Smith
Center-right former President Donald Trump speaks with Dana White while attending the UFC 302 mixed martial arts event on Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Newark, NJ
Former President Trump joined the social media platform TikTok on Saturday, surpassing the Biden campaign’s followers in less than 24 hours since the account’s launch.
Trump and his team posted his first video to TikTok on Saturday night, featuring the former president alongside Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White in a UFC title fight in New Jersey.
The video began with White saying to the camera, “The president is now on TikTok,” and Trump following up with, “It’s an honor.” The 13-second video cuts to Trump entering Saturday night’s fight at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, and greeting fans and other members of the public.
The video racked up more than 2.3 million likes and 38 million views in less than 15 hours as of 2pm on Sunday. Trump’s account won more than 2.2 million followers – more than six times the followers of the Biden-Harris HQ account, which started in February.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for further comment.
Trump, while president, attempted to ban TikTok in an executive order that sought to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. assets. The order was later blocked in court.
In a drastic change, Trump opposed the latest efforts to ban TikTok this year, claiming it would benefit Facebook, which banned it in January 2021 in the wake of the Capitol riots. He placed the blame on President Biden as legislation to potentially ban the app reached Congress and the president’s desk amid growing national security concerns about the app’s ties to China.
The bill was quickly signed by Biden in late April, setting a timeline for ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban from US app stores and networks.
Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., joined TikTok last month under the handle @MAGA. It has more than 17,000 followers and has accumulated more than 176,000 likes since its launch, as of Sunday.
“MAGA INC will not cede any platform to Joe Biden and the Democrats who are trying to destroy our country,” Taylor Budowich, CEO of MAGA Inc., said last month about the launch of the TikTok super PAC. “We will ensure that President Trump’s America First agenda is brought to every corner of the Internet and every district of this country.”
The decision to join the platform could signal an attempt to engage with younger voters ahead of November, as Trump and Biden remain neck and neck in national polls.
Even after mounting legal battles, Trump maintained a minimal 1.5 point lead over Biden nationally, according to a search index by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ.
The social media release comes just days after Trump was convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, becoming the first former US president to become a convicted felon.
The charges related to refunds made to Trump’s former agent and lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a secret payment he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
His sentencing is scheduled for July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Trump’s legal team has vowed to appeal the case, although the process will Go straight on as scheduled in the meantime.
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