Donald Trump reveals TikTok presence

Former President Donald Trump started a TikTok account late Saturday night.

Trump was at the Ultimate Fighting Championship 302 event alongside its president Dana White. The first TikTok posted by the former president included clips of him at the event, with White introducing him on the platform saying, “the president is now on TikTok.”

“It’s my honor,” Trump says in the video.

UFC fans are seen cheering, waving, and taking pictures with Trump, who sat ringside. Trump often attends UFC events with White, but this is his first appearance since a Manhattan jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

@realdonaldtrump Launching my TikTok at @UFC ♬ original sound – President Donald J Trump

Trump’s very first post to TikTok, which is a social media platform due to be banned from United States app stores on Jan. 19, garnered over 17.7 million views in its first eight hours. His account had well over 850,000 followers as of early Sunday morning.

This pending ban of TikTok would pressure ByteDance to sell the social media platform in order for it to be hosted by app stores in the U.S.The ban was signed into law by President Joe Biden in April. Biden also has a campaign profile on the platform.

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In the weeks following Biden signing the law, TikTok filed a lawsuit alleging the ban would violate the platform’s First Amendment rights. That lawsuit was followed by another similar lawsuit filed by TikTok users. Now all the parties involved are requesting that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rule by Dec. 6 on the matter.

Since Trump started his own social media platform Truth Social, he has remained true to it and only posted once on X since owner Elon Musk lifted the ban against him. Meta has continued to ban Trump from Facebook and Instagram.