Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that he still supports TikTok despite the potential ban it faces. The ban could come into effect if its Chinese parent company ByteDance fails to divest the short video app's U.S. assets.
In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek published on Tuesday, Trump said, "I support TikTok because we need competition. Without TikTok, you only have Facebook and Instagram." He previously called TikTok a threat but joined the platform last month. TikTok has 170 million users in the U.S.
Trump criticized Meta's Facebook and Instagram for suspending his accounts for two years following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. In a June interview, he made it clear that he would not support banning TikTok.
TikTok declined to comment. As president, Trump attempted to ban TikTok and the Chinese-owned WeChat in 2020, but the move was blocked by courts. In June 2021, current President Joe Biden revoked a series of Trump-era executive orders that sought to ban WeChat and TikTok.
Trump holds the majority shares in social media company Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates the rival network Truth Social. Despite quarterly revenue of about $770,000, Trump Media's market value is as high as $7 billion, equivalent to two Starbucks stores in the U.S.
In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on a legal challenge to a new law. The law requires ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. assets by January 19 next year or face a potential ban.
