Photo: Alamy
The White House’s new TikTok account has quickly gained traction, with its first video drawing more than 1.3 million views within 24 hours of its debut.
The account was unveiled Tuesday evening with a video montage of President Donald Trump speaking to supporters, addressing rallies, and accompanied by audio from a past speech.
“Every day, I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation. I am your voice!” Trump said in the clip, which was captioned, “America we are BACK. What’s up TikTok?”
Trump has not personally commented on the launch, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration sees the platform as another outlet for promoting the president’s agenda.
“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,” Leavitt said in a statement.
She added, “We’re excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before.”
The account released eight videos shortly after its launch, including footage of Trump, Leavitt and Vice President JD Vance criticizing political opponents, a clip of Trump’s well-known YMCA dance and a compilation celebrating the first 200 days of his second term.
The rollout comes one month ahead of a Sept. 17 deadline for TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform to an American buyer or face a nationwide ban.
Trump first attempted to ban TikTok in 2020, citing national security concerns that the Chinese Communist Party could use the app to access U.S. data or influence young Americans. That executive order was blocked by a federal judge, and President Joe Biden later issued his own order that kept the app in operation. In 2024, Congress passed legislation requiring ByteDance to divest the app.
Since returning to office, Trump has postponed the divestiture deadline three times by executive order, extending it by a total of 240 days. The White House has not clarified whether its launch of a TikTok account signals that a buyer has been secured.
