WASHINGTON – The White House has made a deliberate and very symbolic step by starting an official TikTok account just weeks before a very important deadline for the platform’s future in the United States. On Tuesday, the account @whitehouse went live, sparking a lot of online discussion and enthusiasm from users who think that this means the app is unlikely to be banned.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made the announcement that the decision to join the platform, which has been the subject of a national security debate for years, has been made. Leavitt stated, “The Trump administration is committed to telling as many people and groups as possible about the historic successes President Trump has brought to the American people.” She said that the administration is “excited to build on those successes” from Trump’s presidential campaign, where his messages “dominated TikTok.”
The first video on the new account is a 27-second montage of President Trump meeting individuals, with dramatic music playing in the background. In the video, Trump says, “Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation,” and then ends with his famous slogan, “I am your voice.” The video soon became popular, with thousands of likes and hundreds of comments in the first hour.
The establishment of the White House account is especially interesting because there is still a lot of doubt about what will happen to TikTok. Last year, a legislation said that ByteDance, the Chinese firm that owns TikTok, had to sell the app’s U.S. operations by a certain date or face a ban. The original deadline has gone, but President Trump has pushed it back several times. The most recent extension will conclude on September 17.
Many TikTok users think that the White House’s decision to actively utilize the app is a clear sign that a ban won’t happen. “White House rolled out a TikTok account” was one person’s comment on X, which used to be called Twitter. I have a feeling that the ban won’t happen for a while. Someone else tweeted, “Back in my day, the White House was going to ban TikTok.” We live in exciting times!
The Trump administration hasn’t expressly said that the account means a change in its policy, but the decision shows how important TikTok is for political communication and outreach. It also shows that the administration’s stance on the app has changed, as Trump tried to prohibit it in his first term but then said it helped him win the 2024 presidential race. The future of TikTok’s U.S. operations is still up in the air, but the White House’s increased presence on the site has definitely given a fresh and surprising twist to the story.