Trump says ‘I’m for TikTok’ as potential US ban looms
- Republican presidential candidate joined the app, which 170 million Americans use, last month, after previously calling it a threat
“I’m for TikTok because you need competition. If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram,” Trump told Bloomberg BusinessWeek in an interview posted Tuesday. Trump previously called TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans, a threat but then joined TikTok last month.
Trump, who has criticized Meta Platforms-owned Facebook and Instagram for suspending him for two years in the wake of the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021, told an interviewer in June he would never support a TikTok ban.
TikTok declined to comment. As president, Trump tried to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat in 2020, but the move was blocked by the courts. In June 2021, President Joe Biden withdrew a series of Trump-era executive orders that sought to ban WeChat and TikTok.
Trump holds a majority stake in social media company Trump Media and Technology Group that operates rival network Truth Social. Trump Media has a US$7 billion market capitalisation despite quarterly revenue of around US$770,000 - comparable to two US Starbucks shops.