Donald Trump joins TikTok as Truth Social shares plummet

It might be a very bad sign for Donald Trump's social media company, Truth Social, that Trump himself has decided to join and start posting on TikTok. According to CNBC, Truth Social shares have lost $314 million in value.

Following Donald Trump's conviction for felony crimes on May 30, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG) shares, which runs Truth Social, fell drastically on May 31.

In May, daily visits to Truth Social in the United States fell by over 21% compared to April and 35% compared to March, per data obtained by CNBC from the digital intelligence platform Similarweb.

Since Truth Social just isn't giving Trump the visibility he needs, on June 1, Donald Trump announced that he joined TikTok.

Trump made the announcement via a launch video on the verified account @realDonaldTrump as he waved to supporters while attending an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey, that he attended on Saturday.

The UFC President announced in the 13-second clip, "The president is now on TikTok," to which Trump responded, "It's my honor." At the time of writing this, which was slightly more than four hours after Trump's post, the clip had over 2.7 million views and slightly more than 500K likes.

Photo screenshot from TikTok @realdonaldtrump

Apart from gaining more visibility due to the lack of users on Truth Social, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, likely joined TikTok to better compete against President Joe Biden, who created an account and joined the social media platform back in February.

Despite the controversy surrounding TikTok, it is a potent tool for the two older politicians looking to reach more voters and connect with the younger demographic before the November 2024 elections.

It is ironic that both Biden and Trump are now using TikTok. As reported by The New York Times, Joe Biden recently signed a law in April that states the Chinese parent company that owns the app, ByteDance, must sell TikTok in the new year or it will be banned in the United States.

When he was in office, Donald Trump also tried to ban the app via an executive order due to national security concerns. However, as CNBC points out, earlier this year, the former president said he was against a TikTok ban.

Those against TikTok claim that since ByteDance owns it, Beijing is getting too much information on America through user data, possibly influencing what Americans see. Despite these claims, ByteDance has denied being owned or controlled by the Chinese government.

Anyway, in the meantime, it will be fun seeing both Donald Trump and Joe Biden attempt to be hip and connect with the kids on the live video platform; we expect plenty of ridiculousness!

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