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- President Donald Trump posted his first TikTok since the 2024 election.
- Trump said that he “saved” TikTok, though he once pushed for its ban.
- The White House approved a group of US buyers to purchase the app, though the deal isn’t complete.
President Donald Trump says TikTok users owe him “big.”
In his first TikTok post since the 2024 election, Trump said that he “saved” the popular short-form video platform, though the deal has not yet been finalized.
“To all of those young people of TikTok, I saved TikTok, so you owe me big,” Trump said in a video filmed in the Oval Office. “And now, you’re looking at me in the Oval Office, and someday one of you is going to be sitting right at this desk, and you’re going to be doing a great job also.”
Last week, Trump signed an executive order approving a US group of buyers for a deal valued at around $14 billion. Trump said Oracle and its CEO, Larry Ellison, will be part of the deal. Analysts had previously estimated that TikTok was worth significantly more. China and TikTok have yet to comment on where things stand.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Oracle would “audit” TikTok’s algorithm and oversee its retraining. Control of the algorithm has long been a major sticking point in any sale. China previously enacted export controls that prohibited such transfers without government approval.
Trump has repeatedly said that his stance on TikTok helped him improve his standing among young voters. His first videos featured UFC CEO Dana White and Jake Paul. It was a major shift from Trump’s first administration, which helped lead the push to ban the app, citing national security concerns.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump flipped his stance just as a bipartisan bill to effectively ban the app neared passage. Then-President Joe Biden later signed that bill into law, but punted on enforcing it during his final days in the White House.
TikTok briefly went offline on January 18. Trump then issued the first of a series of executive orders delaying the law’s requirements, even though the law never provided the president with the power to keep issuing extensions.
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