WASHINGTON: Former US president and current White House hopeful Donald Trump has joined TikTok, posting his first video on the wildly popular social media app he once tried to ban while in office.

Reaching out to younger voters as he seeks reelection in November, Trump posted a 13-second clip on Saturday night that shows him in his usual blue suit and red tie attending an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bout in Newark, New Jersey.

In the video, which features raucous music, Trump is introduced by UFC CEO Dana White and leans into the camera saying, “It’s my honour.” Trump greets people at the UFC arena and concludes the clip by saying, “That was a good walk-on, right?”

As of midday Sunday, Trump already had two million followers on his account at @realDonaldTrump.

In April, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that would ban TikTok in the United States if its Chinese owner Bytedance fails to find a buyer for the app within a year.

US officials have expressed concern that China’s government uses TikTok to gather Americans’ personal data for other nefarious purposes. The Biden campaign this year also joined TikTok, which has more than 170 million users in the United States.

While in power, Trump tried to ban TikTok on national security grounds with an executive order, but the drive got bogged down in the courts when a federal judge questioned how the move would affect free speech and blocked the initiative.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2024