TO MEME OR NOT TO MEME

Trump Campaign Mulls Joining TikTok After Wanting to Ban It

Some advisers think it could help him reach young voters, but the move risks alienating other parts of Trump’s base.

Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is split on whether or not it should join TikTok, an app the former president once called a Chinese threat to national security. Trump tried to ban or force a sale of the social-media app in a 2020 executive order that was eventually blocked in court. Since failing in that effort, Trump has flip-flopped on TikTok: Earlier this year, he criticized the Biden administration’s ban-or-forced-sale law because he believed it would benefit Facebook, which he blames for his 2020 election loss. Sources within the campaign told The Washington Post that some key advisers, including Kellyanne Conway, argue a Trump presence on TikTok could help expand his reach among the app’s users, who may view him as a meme-able character, and whose opinions, aides believe, may be heavily shaped by what they see on the app. However, a foray into the video-sharing platform could also irritate Republican allies, many of whom want to see the demise of TikTok, which senator declared to be a “weapon in the hands of Communist China.”