Team Trump is warming to TikTok

MAGA Inc., the Donald Trump-aligned Super PAC, joined TikTok on Wednesday, marking the first group affiliated with Trump to do so.

The independent super PAC kicked off its TikTok page with several videos, including one that slammed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s record of supporting Democrats and going after Republicans, describing him as “a radical leftist.” Another video talked about Trump’s tax cuts and asked viewers whether they could “afford four more years of Joe Biden.” The latest social media account will be used to spread campaign messages, rapid response, and other pro-Trump content.

“There’s millions of voters on TikTok, and @MAGA will deliver President Donald J. Trump’s pro-freedom, pro-America agenda every day with the facts and stories that matter,” Taylor Budowich, CEO of MAGA Inc., said in a statement. “We aren’t trying to set policy, we are trying to win an election.”

Budowich also offered up some insight as to why the organization decided to join TikTok, despite Republican condemnations of the platform’s ties to China: He said they wouldn’t “cede any platform to Joe Biden and the Democrats,” (the Biden campaign launched its own TikTok account in February) and promised that Trump’s “America First agenda will be brought to every corner of the internet.” Fox News first reported the news.

This all comes one day after TikTok filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government over a new law, passed last month in the House and Senate and signed by Biden, that would force ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, to sell the app or be banned. The lawsuit argues the bill is unconstitutional and points out that the Biden campaign has its own account on the platform, which they say undermines the argument that it’s a threat to Americans.

Notably, while Trump tried to ban TikTok when he was president back in 2020, saying that it was a national security risk, he’s since changed his stance publicly while also cultivating a relationship with ByteDance investor and GOP megadonor Jeff Yass. In March, he argued that a ban would only “make Facebook bigger” and that while security issues do need to be addressed, “young kids on TikTok” would “go crazy without it.”

After Biden’s campaign joined TikTok earlier this year, Trump’s advisors told me Trump would likely never do the same given how embarrassing a 180° turn it would be and how much his voters are keyed in on China concerns.

“If you weigh the possible positive impact on young voters versus the certain negative impact on our base, it’s a wash at best,” one person close to the campaign said at the time.

Trump still hasn’t taken the plunge yet, but his allied super PAC doing so is the clearest sign yet of his orbit’s shifting stance as he personally signals more interest in the app. The Washington Post recently reported that his campaign is discussing joining the platform behind closed doors, and while Trump would be unlikely to use the platform himself like he does Truth Social, aides have talked about posting videos under his name.

It’s easy enough to look at Yass, look at Trump’s legal bills and fundraising issues, and make your own guess as to what’s going on, but there’s also the political reality that other campaigns are starting to recognize as well: TikTok is an increasingly attractive platform this cycle, despite all of its controversies, because it taps into a huge pool of young voters who can’t be easily reached elsewhere. Given Biden’s polling struggles with this group, there’s plenty of motive for both sides to get off the sidelines as long as the app is still operating.

• Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin remains “very interested” in purchasing Tiktok, he said during an interview this week. But the idea does have its hurdles: ByteDance might not be allowed to sell TikTok’s algorithm, and litigation could affect the ability to quickly build out new technology, The Hill reported.
• A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Americans are divided on a TikTok ban: Half of Americans support it, while the other half either oppose or are unsure of their opinion.