Former President Donald Trump called on Americans to “vote Trump” to “save TikTok” on Wednesday in a complete 180 from his 2020 effort to ban the app in the United States.
“FOR ALL OF THOSE THAT WANT TO SAVE TIK TOK IN AMERICA, VOTE TRUMP!” wrote the former president on Truth Social.
In a video message, he added:
For all of those who wanna save TikTok in America, vote for Trump. The other side’s closing it up, but I’m now a big star on TikTok. We even have TikTok check and we’re setting records. We’re not doing anything with TikTok, but the other side’s gonna close it up, so if you like TikTok, go out and vote for Trump. If you don’t care about TikTok and other things, like safety, security, and prosperity, then you can vote for a Marxist who’s going to destroy our country.
A bill to effectively ban TikTok was passed by both the House and the Senate, and subsequently signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this year.
Trump’s message on Wednesday was a complete 180 from his own 2020 attempt to have the Chinese app banned in the United States following concerns that it could pose a security risk.
In 2020, the then-president signed an executive order banning American companies from doing business with TikTok’s parent company, citing censorship on the platform and its collection of “vast swaths of information from its users, including internet and other network activity … such as location data and browsing and search histories.”
Biden reversed the executive order following his victory over Trump in the 2020 election.
Trump walked back on his previous anti-TikTok stance several months ago and joined the app in an apparent attempt to appeal to young voters.
Watch above via Donald Trump.
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