Former US President Donald Trump posted his first video on the Chinese social network TikTok on Saturday evening. In the video, Trump is introduced by Dana White, an American television personality and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the main mixed martial arts league: «the president is now on TikTok», says White, and Trump replies that «he is a honor”. He is then seen waving to the crowd at a sports game in Newark, New Jersey, with Kid Rock’s song “American Bad Ass” playing in the background.
The Republican party – of which Trump is the presidential candidate for next November’s primaries – has long been very opposed to the spread of TikTok and Trump himself, during his presidency, had tried to ban the app in the United States, claiming that it was a threat to national security due to the relationship between the company that owns it, ByteDance, and the Chinese government. However, a member of Trump’s campaign staff explained to Politic that “being able to reach multiple platforms and channels is important and this is just one of the many ways we will reach voters”, referring in particular to younger voters.
Last Thursday Trump became the first US president convicted in a criminal trial, but regardless of the type of sentence he is assigned (which will be decided in July) he will still be able to remain a candidate in the presidential elections and become president.
In the United States, the use of TikTok is currently banned on phones and other government devices. Joe Biden, current president of the United States and most likely Trump’s future rival in the next elections, opened his profile on TikTok in February. In April he signed a bill that gave the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, nine months to sell the app and all related technologies, such as its algorithm.
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