The White House has officially joined TikTok, even as the administration is trying to help determine the future of the platform in the US.
So far, the TikTok account has eight videos: a mix of President Donald Trump speaking, footage of the White House over music — and the caption “We’re so back.” There’s also a video of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responding with hostility to a press conference question from a New York Times reporter, which is one way to set the tone early on. As of this writing, the account had more than 175,000 followers.
The tagline for the account is: “Welcome to the Golden Age of America.”
After a move to ban TikTok in the US due to its Chinese ownership, the administration has delayed a shutdown as it seeks to help ByteDance, the company’s owner, transfer ownership to a US company. There are expectations that new ownership could be announced as early as September as the company works on a US-only version of the TikTok mobile app.
Reaction so far
As might be expected, reactions to the account have been divisive on the platform, with the website Mashable pointing out instances where “it’s already getting dragged.”
On each of the videos, some of the comments include calls related to the Jeffrey Epstein case; the most liked comment on one video, from popular TikTok personality Aaron Parnas, reads simply, “Why won’t you release the files?” It has 43,000 likes.
Leavitt officially acknowledged the platform, saying in a statement to media outlets, “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,” she said. “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.”
However, it was unclear who’s running the account and how it’s being populated with content. As the website Government Technology points out, Tiktok is banned on government devices.
