White House creates account on TikTok, the app Trump once tried to ban

The White House launched an account on the popular video app TikTok on Tuesday, sharing a number of videos, including one in which President Donald Trump declares: “I am your voice.”

The U.S. has had a rocky relationship with the Chinese-owned video app across multiple administrations. Federal employees are banned from downloading it on work devices - with limited exceptions - because of concerns that China could collect Americans’ user data.

Trump once called TikTok a national security threat, but during last year’s presidential election campaign, his team came to regard it as a secret weapon for reaching young voters. The TikTok account Trump used during the campaign has a following of more than 15 million.

The Trump administration has been trying to help negotiate a deal to spin off the app from its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, ahead of a September deadline to either sell the app to a non-Chinese buyer or be banned from the United States. He has extended the deadline multiple times.

Former president Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also active on TikTok during the presidential campaign in an effort to reach young voters, despite concerns over the app’s ownership.

TikTok is among the most popular smartphone applications in the U.S., used by tens of millions including the majority of adults under 30. TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew was present at Trump’s inauguration, among other tech power players.

Trump and his team have also embraced the short-video format on other platforms, including Instagram and X, where serious topics such as mass deportation have become the subject of meme videos posted on official federal government accounts.

During his first term, Trump issued an executive order that sought to ban TikTok. The order faced court challenges and was revoked by Biden in 2021 before it took effect. In January, Trump used an executive order to halt the enforcement of a ban-or-sale law signed by Biden in April 2024, although the app went offline in the United States for about 14 hours.

TikTok says the ban violates freedom of speech and that it has offered measures to wall off U.S. user data and allow for increased U.S. oversight.

- - -

Drew Harwell contributed to this report.