Former President Trump’s super PAC has joined TikTok, the app that Trump’s administration previously tried to prohibit, as it tries to spread its message on different platforms.
“MAGA INC will not give up any platform to Joe Biden and the Democrats who are attempting to ruin our country,” Taylor Budowich, CEO of MAGA Inc., posted on the social platform X. “We will make sure President Trump’s America First agenda is brought to every part of the internet and every precinct of this country.”
The super PAC is using the handle “@MAGA” on the app. Its first videos promote Trump’s economic achievements and criticize independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “longtime Democrat and a liberal.”
The Biden campaign has been on TikTok for months and has collaborated with influencers on the platform to propagate the president’s message and agenda, viewing it as a way to reach younger voters.
The campaign has stated it will stay on the app even after President Biden signed legislation that could result in a ban on TikTok several months down the road.
The Washington Post reported this week that Trump’s presidential campaign was considering whether to join the popular app, with advisers divided over whether the benefits were worth the potential political backlash of joining a platform some Republicans have associated with Chinese spyware.
The former president issued an executive order in 2020 attempting to compel TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. assets, though the order was later blocked in court.
But Trump has since changed his stance, suggesting a ban on TikTok could benefit Facebook, a company the former president has a long-standing feud with.
Facebook barred Trump in January 2021 following the Capitol riots, during which hundreds of his supporters tried to stop the certification of the 2020 election results. The former president spent months spreading false claims about the election on social media in the lead-up to the attack on the Capitol.