Now We Know Why Trump Saved TikTok
The president’s total 180 on TikTok was, in no small part, due to the machinations of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Donald Trump had opposed the social media behemoth for years. Long before Democrats hopped on board with the idea, Trump challenged the app’s presence in the United States based on flimsy national security concerns, attempting to instate a total ban on the video-sharing app. But in the wake of Trump’s 2024 win, Kirk—whose efforts rallying young voters significantly aided the president’s cause—managed to change Trump’s mind.
That November 2024 meeting involved Kirk, Trump, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and a slideshow with a swath of visual graphics that Kirk knew would sway the incumbent Republican. Kirk and Chew wanted to stall the impending congressional ban on the app, and they succeeded by appealing to the president’s vanity.
One slide, obtained by Axios, depicted the number of views Trump had accrued on the platform. It was staggering: a cumulative 3.8 billion eyes had watched content related to the president. Meanwhile, his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, was remarkably less popular, generating 1.3 billion views.
Their closest competition was, according to the slide, Kirk himself, Fox News, Tucker Carlson, and pop phenomenon Taylor Swift.
“I’m more popular than Taylor Swift,” Trump remarked, according to Axios.
Trump then rang his son, Barron, to crow over the stat, according to MAGA insiders who spoke with the digital publication.
The undertaking was almost too successful, so much so that it’s caused retrograde amnesia among Trump’s allies. In truth, Trump attempted to eradicate TikTok via an executive order before he left office in 2020, but that effort appears to be in the past. Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump during his campaign, told Axios that the president had always been a fond supporter of the app due to its ability to reach young voters.
“He’d say all the time: ‘You guys are missing it! These young people, they love TikTok. They’re on it all day long,’” Miller told Axios. “And he’d recount stories of Barron talking about it, and also younger people who work with him and for him.”
Last month, TikTok changed ownership in order to avoid the stalled U.S. ban, switching hands from ByteDance to a consortium of U.S.-led investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. Together, those three hold an 80.1 percent majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations, according to a company announcement. ByteDance still retains a 19.9 percent minority stake.