President Donald Trump has boasted about his popularity on TikTok, claiming to be the most followed world leader on the platform, despite potential criticism in the videos. Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump said, “You know who the number one person on TikTok is by far? Trump.” He contrasted this with Taylor Swift, who he claimed ranked 11th.
The president shared a graphic on Truth Social, attributed to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, stating that Trump is the “most followed and watched world leader on TikTok” and that there have been 425 billion views of “#Trump TikToks” overall. The graphic also reported four billion views across all “Trump-related DC beautification TikToks” since January, without specifying whether the content was critical, supportive, or neutral.
One of Trump’s recent DC projects, the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, has faced scrutiny after the water turned green from algae and new blue paint chipped away shortly after completion. A viral TikTok video showing the peeling paint and green water amassed 3.5 million views and over 281 likes. Trump blamed vandals, but government documents obtained by The New York Times indicated deterioration was already underway.
Trump joined TikTok during the 2024 election cycle and has 16.7 million followers and 121.8 million likes on his personal account, compared to Swift’s 33.5 million followers and 274.6 million likes. Despite previously raising national security concerns about the app, Trump said on Monday, “We have to be careful because China is a great competitor,” but added, “I’m No. 1 on TikTok. I think it helped me win the election in a landslide.”
The future of TikTok in the US remains uncertain after former President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring ByteDance to sell its US operations or face a ban. Trump has extended the deadline, and in January, TikTok finalised a deal to create an American joint venture to secure user data and algorithms.
