Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump made a surprising move by joining TikTok, the social media platform he once sought to ban. His account has amassed more than five million followers, surpassing the Joe Biden campaign’s following.
What Happened: The Biden-Harris HQ account, created in February, has approximately 355,000 followers at the moment. The President has reportedly found it challenging to retain his 2020 advantage with young voters.
Trump’s first video on TikTok, posted during a UFC title fight, has garnered 5.2 million likes and 79.4 million views. His move to join the ByteDance-owned social media platform was seen as an attempt to engage younger voters, reported The Hill.
“This is a vital space for political conversations, especially among specific audiences,” said Valerie Wirtschafter, a Brookings Institution fellow in the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative.
“Especially for Trump, if he feels like those are voters who are disillusioned with Biden for whatever reason despite historically voting Democratic, it's a prime opportunity to try and peel them away,” she added.
Notably, Biden does not have a personal TikTok account, only a campaign account, which Wirtschafter suggested might be limiting its reach.
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Why It Matters: Trump’s foray into TikTok is a significant development in the ongoing battle for the youth vote. This move is in line with the observations made by political expert Patrick Bet-David, who highlighted Trump’s superior campaign marketing as a key advantage in the presidential race.
Despite his recent guilty verdict in the New York election interference case, Trump has not ceded any ground to Biden, as evidenced by the poll results in three battleground states.
Trump’s success on TikTok could be attributed to his existing social media presence. Although, he has posted only once in the past three and half years, the former President still has 87.2 million followers on the social platform X, formerly Twitter. On the other hand, Biden, who posts several times a day, has 38 million followers.
Photos via Shutterstock.
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