White House on TikTok as ban deadline approaches

The White House on Tuesday joined TikTok as President Donald Trump's deadline for a potential ban of the Chinese-owned app draws near.

The first post from the White House is a video of Trump saying, "Every day, I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation. I am your voice" with a caption reading: "America we are BACK! What's up TikTok?"

Soon after its launch, the account had attracted 67,000 followers, with numbers certain to climb further.

The US Congress passed bipartisan legislation in 2024 requiring ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, to divest US operations or face a nationwide ban due to national security concerns about potential data sharing with Beijing.

But in a June executive order, Trump extended the TikTok enforcement deadline by 90 days to Sept. 17-his third delay of the potential ban.

The short video platform, which serves around 170 million users in the US, briefly went offline prior to Trump's second inauguration this January but was restored after he promised to postpone enforcement.

The president in June said that a "group of wealthy people" plans to purchase TikTok, requiring Chinese government approval for the transaction.

He added: "I think (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping) will probably do it."

Trump described the potential buyers as "very, very wealthy people" forming a group, but declined to say whether a major tech firm was involved.