Donald Trump has more than 240,000 followers on TikTok

Former US Republican President Donald Trump has released his first video on short video app TikTok.

Us political news website POLITICO reported on Sunday (June 2) that Trump opened a verified official TikTok account and posted the first short video on Saturday evening, He appeared at the Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Newark, New Jersey, interacting with supporters.

Indeed, a search for "realDonaldTrump" on the TikTok app shows the account description as "45th President of the United States." Currently, the account has about 245,000 followers, and the short video has been viewed more than 1.1 million times and received more than 250,000 likes.

Trump is shown standing next to UFC president Dana White, who tells the camera: "The President is now on TikTok!" Trump added: "I'm honored."

TikTok, which has more than 100 million users in the United States, is currently facing a "sell it or ban it" challenge from the U.S. government.

An adviser to the Trump campaign said the team was working on a variety of fronts, that being able to reach out across multiple platforms and channels was important, and that joining TikTok was just one of many ways to reach voters.

Democratic President Joe Biden's campaign joined TikTok in February. That suggests that no matter how controversial the app may be, it is a valuable messaging tool for both men's presidential campaigns.

During Trump's presidency, he tried to ban TikTok in the United States due to national security concerns, but a federal court ultimately blocked his efforts.

However, after Biden signed TikTok's "sell or ban" bill, Trump expressed the opposite view. He said that while TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance remained a national security threat, banning the app would anger young Americans and help Facebook owner Meta.