On Tuesday, the White House launched its official TikTok account. Despite U.S. law calling for the sale of the Chinese-owned platform due to national security concerns, President Donald Trump continues to permit its operation in the United States. The account’s debut post, a 27-second video, received about 4,500 followers in the first hour. Presently, Trump’s personnel TikTok account holds 110.1 million followers, though his last posting was on November 5, 2024’s election day.
Trump holds TikTok in high regard, attributing the app for garnering support from young voters during the November 2024 election, when he triumphed over his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.
The Trump administration confirms its commitment to sharing the president’s historic successes through various audiences and platforms. Initially, a federal law mandated TikTok’s sale or a ban based on national security but was paused prior to Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2021.
Bedicted primarily in the U.S. with 170 million users, ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has been negotiating with the U.S. government to devise a suitable resolution for the app. Any such agreement would require Chinese legal approval. On June 19, 2025, Trump postponed the deadline for ByteDance to identify a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the U.S. for the third time.
Enacted by Trump in 2020, the proposal to ban TikTok was initially a bipartisan issue that subsequently gained support from Congress. The original deadline for this ban was January 19.
Trump’s stance on TikTok shifted during his presidential campaign, whereby he amassed almost 15 million followers and engaged with the platform’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew. Trump and Chew also met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, with Chew present at the inauguration.
Despite initially endorsing a ban or divestment of TikTok, Trump’s stance changed as he came to believe that the platform facilitated his success among young voters during the November election. His official account on X (previously Twitter) has 108.5 million followers, while his preferred social media outlet, Truth Social, where he has 10.6 million followers, remains under his own ownership.
Followers of the official White House accounts on X and Instagram stand at 2.4 million and 9.3 million, respectively. Contributions to reporting were made by Dara Kerr.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/19/white-house-tiktok-account-trump
