The White House opened a TikTok account on Tuesday, August 19, after President Donald Trump allowed the Chinese-owned platform to continue operating in the United States despite a law requiring its sale.
“America, we’re back! How is TikTok doing? read the caption for the 27-second video that was the account’s debut post on the well-known video-sharing app.
The account gained roughly 4,500 followers within an hour of the video being uploaded. On TikTok, Trump’s personal account boasts 110.1 million followers, although his most recent post came on election day, November 5, 2024.
ByteDance is a Chinese internet company that owns TikTok.
The day before Trump’s inauguration on January 20, a federal legislation was scheduled to go into effect mandating TikTok’s sale or prohibition on national security grounds.
However, the Republican, who has stated that he enjoys TikTok and whose 2024 campaign was largely reliant on social media, paused the ban. Trump gave the well-known video-sharing app an additional ninety days to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a U.S. ban in mid-June.
The deadline for that extension is mid-September. Trump had long advocated for a ban or divestment, but after realizing that the platform, which has almost two billion users worldwide, had helped him win over young voters in the November election, he changed his mind and pledged to defend it.
Trump’s preferred social media platform is Truth Social, which he controls and has 10.6 million followers, but his official account on X, formerly Twitter, has 108.5 million followers.
There are 9.3 million followers on Instagram and 2.4 million on X for the official White House profiles.
