President Donald Trump attempted to curry favor with what he called “the young people of TikTok” on Monday, essentially arguing that Gen Z should be thankful that he didn’t ultimately follow through on his own executive order from 2020 to ban their favorite social media app. “To all of those young people of TikTok, I saved TikTok, so you owe me big,” Trump said in his first TikTok post since the 2024 election, filmed in the Oval Office. “And now, you’re looking at me in the Oval Office, and someday one of you is going to be sitting right at this desk, and you’re going to be doing a great job also.”
Over the past five years, the TikTok ban has evolved on a bipartisan basis. After Trump floated the idea during his first presidency, it became a 2024 law signed by President Joe Biden, requiring TikTok to either sell its U.S. operations or face a ban. In recent weeks, Trump has announced a deal, which is still pending, while holding talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. TikTok’s American wing will be controlled by a consortium of Trump-aligned billionaires including Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch, and Michael Dell.
