Former President Donald Trump has joined TikTok, debuting his account with a video from a UFC fight Saturday night.
Trump joined the popular video-sharing app despite previous efforts to ban the social media platform during his presidency.
The 13-second video was filmed at a UFC event in New Jersey he attended over the weekend. UFC President Dana White is featured in the clip announcing, “The President is now on TikTok.”
Trump then says, “It’s my honor.” The video cuts to the former president greeting fans in the arena and ends with him saying, “That was a good walk-on, right?”
In an executive order addressing the threats posed by TikTok in August 2020, Trump said, “The spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. At this time, action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok.”
According to NBC News, Trump has shifted his position on banning the app, saying it would empower Facebook.
In an interview with CNBC Trump said, “without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.”
In the interview Trump continued to express his belief that TikTok is a national security risk due to its ownership. However, he said that other social media platforms like Facebook have similar issues concerning privacy and security, per CNBC.
Since his TikTok debut Trump has accumulated 4.4 million followers and 4.5 million likes, with his first video reaching 71.5 million views.
According to a The New York Times internal analysis, TikTok has roughly 170 million American users. Before Trump launched his TikTok presence, the app has had nearly twice as many pro-Trump posts than pro-Biden posts since November.
Trump stated in a video on his Truth Social platform, “Young people, remember: Crooked Joe Biden is the one that wants to take your TikTok away from you,” per The New York Times.
“We will leave no front undefended and this represents the continued outreach to a younger audience consuming pro-Trump and anti-Biden content,’ Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement about the campaign’s decision to join the platform, according to The Associated Press.
“There’s no place better than a UFC event to launch President Trump’s TikTok, where he received a hero’s welcome and thousands of fans cheered him on.”