Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower in New York state after he was convicted of falsifying business records to conceal an effort to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. paid to be found guilty in a criminal trial.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign launched an official account on TikTok late Saturday, as the social media platform faces a possible ban in the United States
“It’s my honor,” Trump said in his first speech. Tik Tok The post, which went by the handle “@realdonaldtrump,” was followed by a montage of him waving to the crowd during Saturday’s Ultimate Fighting Championship show. The post received 1.5 million likes within 10 hours of going live.
Trump’s launch of TikTok comes as his own social media company, Trump Media, has suffered a financial setback following the historic verdict of the former president on 34 felony counts in his Manhattan hush-money trial. .
Trump Media, parent company of Truth Social deal DJT The company’s stock price fell more than 5% at $49 at the close of trading on Friday, the day after Trump was convicted. The stock fell about 15% in extended trading Thursday after Trump was convicted.
Trump banned from Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Since then, Trump Media has gone public, and the former president currently owns 65% of the company.
Truth Social did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Trump’s move to TikTok.
Trump is months behind his Democratic rivals, President Joe Biden, whose reelection campaign launched on TikTok in February. But on Sunday, the Republican presidential candidate had more than 1 million followers, surpassing the Biden campaign’s 336,000 followers.
“We refuse to concede any ground to Biden and the Democrats,” Trump campaign spokesperson Carolyn Leavitt said in a statement to NBC News on Sunday. “We will reach every voter we can to get Trump’s message The president’s winning message. He’s already making big gains among young voters, and this is another way to reach them.”
Both candidates have joined TikTok despite previously expressing national security concerns about the app.
In April, Biden signed a foreign aid package that included a provision forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the app or face a nationwide ban on the platform in the United States
During his administration, Trump also stated that he would work hard to Ban TikTok, although he later changed this stance. Still, he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in a March interview that he believed TikTok could threaten U.S. national security.
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