Despite having raised concerns that the app is a national security threat, the White House is now on TikTok.
The White House’s TikTok page has already posted seven videos and amassed more than 160,000 followers since launching Tuesday. The debut post features a dramatic and complimentary video montage of President Donald Trump, accompanied by the caption: “America we are BACK! What’s up TikTok?”
Trump has repeatedly extended a deadline imposed by Congress during the Biden administration for the popular app’s China-based parent company to divest or else face a ban in the U.S.
When asked Wednesday by MSNBC, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not say whether the administration thinks TikTok is a danger to national security, saying:
The Trump administration is committed to communicating the historic successes President Trump has delivered to the American people with as many audiences and platforms as possible. President Trump’s message dominated TikTok during his presidential campaign, and we’re excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before. Trump’s first administration expressed the view that TikTok might be a tool for Chinese surveillance. In 2020, Trump tried to ban TikTok via an executive order that said in part: “[T]he spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China (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.” Yet now the White House has a TikTok account itself. The account’s third posted video is a compilation of some of Trump’s most viral moments, including insults and threats to other politicians and his famous awkward dance moves to “YMCA.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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