Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump joined the social media platform TikTok late on Saturday night, when his team released a fun video of his standing ovation walkout at UFC 302 in Newark, New Jersey.
The president’s new social media presence on TikTok caused quite a stir, kicking off an avalanche of views that resulted in the amassment of millions of followers in a matter of hours.
According to the Trump campaign, the new TikTok account, @RealDonaldTrump, racked up more than 55.5 million views upon its release and counting. He also kicked things off with 2.7 million organic followers and 2.8 million likes.
Incredibly, President Trump’s account surpassed the number of followers amassed by the Biden-Harris HQ account on TikTok, drawing in ten times the number of followers in “just 12 hours after launch.”
The campaign also highlighted, “The @RealDonaldTrump launch video has already generated 30X more views than the @BidenHQ account average monthly across all content.”
In an official statement, President Trump explained why he had chosen to join TikTok, which has become wildly popular with young voters.
He said, “I am going to use every tool available to speak directly with the American people about how Joe Biden’s failed presidency is tearing apart our beautiful nation and how I am going to stop him. Together, WE are going to Make America Great Again!”
By Monday morning, Trump’s single UFC video had earned more than 65 million views, and his follower count had risen to 3.9 million.
The Biden-Harris HQ account, by contrast, has been on TikTok for months. The account has just over 346,000 followers. Its first video featured Joe Biden discussing the 2024 Super Bowl and accrued 10.7 million views. It is remarkable that Trump’s initial burst onto the TikTok platform surpassed Biden’s viewership on his highest-viewed video right out of the gate.
Per the Trump campaign, “Released with no announcement, the account quickly broke records and destroyed dishonest Joe Biden’s TikTok weak and feeble launch video. President Trump’s TikTok account is the most successful political account launch in TikTok history according to TikTok.”
