The White House joined TikTok and is sharing edited clips portraying President Trump and his staff as quick-witted and rebellious leaders. The clips show Trump declining phone calls from Congressmen, threatening lawsuits, and feature Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confronting a New York Times reporter. Operating the account appears to conflict with past bans on TikTok on government devices. Trump previously pushed to ban TikTok over Chinese data access concerns but has extended a sale deadline despite a Supreme Court-upheld law requiring sale to an American company. Public reaction to the videos has been mixed and heavily negative in comments.
The White House joined TikTok on Tuesday, where it's sharing video clips of President Donald Trump and his staff that attempt to portray them as a quick-witted, rebellious American leaders. These clips, edited together like a sizzle reel, show Trump declining phone calls from Congressmen and threatening lawsuits during a press conference. Another video boasts that Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt "rips" a New York Times reporter after he asked a question at a press conference.
Trump himself initiated the calls to ban TikTok nationally in 2020, citing the danger of the Chinese Communist Party potentially accessing American user data. But in his second term, the president has taken a different approach. While the Supreme Court upheld a law that bans TikTok if it is not sold to an American company, Trump has continually extended the sale deadline.
TechCrunch has reached out to TikTok for comment. Reception to the White House videos has been decidedly mixed. As of Wednesday morning, each of the five videos that the White House has uploaded to TikTok have been spammed with negative comments, many of them referencing the president's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted child sex offender who died awaiting trial.
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