The White House officially joins TikTok - and it's already getting roasted

The White House is officially on TikTok - and it didn't take long for Trump critics to rip into the account.

With over 170 million US users, it's no surprise that the Trump administration is keen to use the popular app to spread its political messaging.

In fact, Donald Trump himself joined the platform during the 2024 presidential election campaign - along with his Democratic rivals, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris - in the hopes of reaching younger voters, and he has 15.1 million followers at the time of writing.

"Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people," Trump told NBC last March.

“Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it."

Here's everything you need to know about the new White House TikTok account.

First posts

The White House declared "America we are BACK! What’s up TikTok?" in its first video featuring several videos of Trump at public appearances and rallies.

In a second post, they said in the caption, "We're so back" as they shared clips of the exterior of the White House.

A number of moments were included in the third video such as meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, remarks about Senator Elizabeth Warren and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. His "everything's computer" comment in a Tesla Model S Plaid during Elon Musk's Tesla promotion on the White House lawn was also used too.

For the caption, it's a quote from Trump, where back in June, he told reporters, "I was the hunted, and now I'm the hunter."

At the time of writing, the White House official TikTok has posted 10 videos and now has over 243,000 followers.

Reaction

It's fair to say, the White House TikTok account has been widely criticised in the comments section under their videos, with people questioning why the government has joined the app they previously deemed a national security threat, and also took the time to ask about the Epstein files too.

One person wrote, "I thought TikTok was a national security threat? At least that's what Trump said in in August 6, 2020 executive order to ban it. Now they have an official White House account. This just proves it was never about security. They just want to control it."

"Where is the Epstein files? Release the files. And why is the White House posting on a banned app?" a second person asked.

A third person posted, "Donald Trump is the worst thing to happen to America."

"I thought TikTok was legally banned on all government devices?" a fourth person commented.

What has the White House said?

"The Trump administration is committed to communicating the historic successes President Trump has delivered to the American people with as many audiences and platforms as possible," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters.

"President Trump's message dominated TikTok during his presidential campaign, and we're excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before," she said.

Isn't TikTok getting banned in the US?

Hmmm, not yet... let us explain.

Last year, a law was introduced that required TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app's U.S. assets or prove a sale was pending by January 19.

TikTok was down in the US from 18-19 January under the nationwide ban.

However, when Trump began his second term on January 20, he extended the deadline to April, and the app was then restored for its 170 million US users.

The president has since extended the deadline to June 19 and then again to September 17.

This move to keep extending the deadline has received some criticism due to national security concerns over the Chinese-owned app.

Previously, TikTok has said the company is fully independent and "has not provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we if asked," as per the BBC.

Elsewhere, Trump's new White House portrait mercilessly mocked over one unfortunate detail, and this 'worrying' detail in Trump's White House is causing critics serious concern.

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