On June 24 last year, US President Donald Trump said in a video posted on his private TikTok account: “I’m gonna save TikTok.”
He is, for once, staying the course as the White House has officially joined the social media platform, even though another deadline is approaching for its parent company, China-born Bytedance, to sell to a US buyer or face a ban.
“America we are BACK! What’s up TikTok,” reads the caption on the account’s first post, a 27-second clip in which Trump hits the high notes, announcing he is the “voice” of the people. Within a few hours, the account had about 56,000 followers.
TikTok is an example of the President enjoying a good old flip-flop. During his first term, he tried to banish the platform, only to create a personal account in June 2024 and now has allowed the White House to have its own.
Between the two terms, Joe Biden signed the law that would force ByteDance to fully divest from TikTok in the US.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order to extend a trade truce with China for another three months, until November 10. US treasury secretary Scott Bessent recently told Fox News that the US is “very happy” with the situation with China.
“I think right now the status quo is working pretty well,” he said, indicating that an easing of tension may lead to a meeting between Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.
“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,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.
The ban stemming from former President Joe Biden’s order has seen TikTok shut down in the US for one day, and the implementation of the law has been delayed three times.
It’s unclear how the White House is complying with a separate law, passed during the Biden administration, which stops the use of TikTok on government devices, except for national security research and law enforcement.
In June, Trump said: “We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way. I think I’ll need probably China approval and I think President Xi will probably do it. It’s a group of very wealthy people.”
Earlier this month, Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50 per cent to discourage the Modi government from purchasing discounted oil from Russia, which, the US argues, helps fund Russia’s war against Ukraine. Yet, China remains the largest overall buyer of Moscow’s crude, though India has been the only major economy to be hit with “secondary tariffs”.
The Indian government banned TikTok — and several other Chinese apps — in June 2020 on national security grounds.