“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,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters, which first reported the creation of the account.
Trump has embraced TikTok after his latest presidential campaign, crediting the platform with helping him to reach young voters who backed his candidacy at higher rates compared to his previous efforts. It’s a stark departure from his first term, when the president signed an executive order attempting to ban the app if ByteDance didn’t divest its US operations over concerns it could endanger users’ personal data.Lawmakers subsequently passed legislation forcing the sale of the app’s US operations during former President Joe Biden’s administration. But Trump has repeatedly delayed implementation of provisions in the law mandating the shutdown of the service as he’s sought to broker a deal.
It’s not clear how the White House is complying with a separate law, passed during the Biden administration, which bans the use of TikTok on government devices except for law enforcement and national security research and activities. The legislation also requires the development of risk mitigation actions for any authorized use.
In the Biden administration, TikTok was banned from officials’ government phones — including at the White House — though the former president’s campaign created an account using a staffer’s personal device.
In June, Trump said he had identified a buyer but that he believed a sale would be contingent on approval from Beijing and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“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,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “It’s a group of very wealthy people.”
A deal was said to be close earlier this year, led by a consortium of US investors including Oracle Corp., Blackstone Inc. and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. But Trump has said he believes that his implementation of tariffs on Chinese goods has complicated the effort.
Under Trump’s latest executive order, ByteDance has until Sept. 17 to divest, though the president has extended the deadline repeatedly.
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