Trump no longer plans to ban TikTok if elected president, will 'save TikTok'

Former U.S. Donald Trump in an exclusive Bloomberg Business interview said he's now for TikTok.

In recent months, Trump expressed that he no longer plans to ban the popular social media app and is "gonna save TikTok".

No longer planning to ban TikTok

The 78-year-old Republican said that banning TikTok in the U.S. would benefit a corporation and a CEO he does not want to bring benefit to.

“Now [that] I’m thinking about it, I’m for TikTok, because you need competition,” Trump said.

“If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram—and that’s, you know, that’s Zuckerberg.”

Trump in the interview expressed he was still upset after being banned from Facebook and Instagram in 2021.

Banned from Facebook and Instagram

Then, Trump was banned from Facebook and Instagram after he used these platforms to "incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government".

Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, said that Trump had used his platform to "condone rather than condemn" protests amid the transition of power from Trump to Biden.

"We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," Zuckerberg said, saying that Trump's ban will last "indefinitely".

"All of a sudden," Trump lamented, "I went from No. 1 to having nobody".

Created TikTok account last month

During his tenure in 2020, Trump said he planned to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns.

Four years later, the former President has changed his mind about the popular social media app, even creating his very own TikTok account just last month.

@realdonaldtrump Launching my TikTok at @UFC ♬ original sound - President Donald J Trump

He has since gained popularity on the app and has gained over 8.6 million followers.

In April, Trump said that current U.S. President Joe Biden would be the one responsible if the ban on TikTok was imposed.

"He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant."

Will fight the ban in courts: Chew Shou Zi

On Apr. 24, 2024, United States (U.S.) President Joe Biden signed the TikTok sell-or-ban bill into law.

This means TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance has nine months to sell the social media platform, or face a nationwide ban of the app in the U.S..

Moments after Biden's signing, TikTok's chief executive officer Chew Shou Zi issued a statement on X, formerly Twitter, assuring the social media platform's U.S. users that the app was "not going anywhere".

He said that he and his team would fight the ban in courts.

Image via @realdonaldtrump/TikTok.