Trump calls it an 'honor' to join TikTok after previously trying to ban the app

Former President Donald Trump is now on TikTok after previously seeking to ban the popular video-streaming app over national security concerns when he was in office.

Trump posted his first video to the app while attending an Ultimate Fighting Championship match in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday. In the video, Trump is accompanied by UFC president and longtime ally Dana White.

“The president is now on TikTok,” White said.

"It's my honor," Trump replied.

In 2020, Trump sought to clamp down on TikTok through executive action due to fears that the Chinese government could access sensitive American user data on the app, which is owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance. Federal courts later blocked that effort.

More recently, Trump has distanced himself from the push to ban the app, telling CNBC in March that even though he still considers it a national security threat, getting rid of it would only empower Facebook.

"Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people," Trump said.

Trump's emergence on the platform comes as the former president's own social media platform, Truth Social, faces new pressure after a New York jury found him guilty on Thursday of falsifying business records in order to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump has long denied any wrongdoing and has made clear he will appeal the historic verdict.

While some Trump supporters have doubled down and bought more shares of the former president's social media platform, the stock fell 5% overall on the day after the verdict, and in the first quarter alone the company lost over $300 million.

Joining TikTok may not help Truth Social's bottom line, it could prove to be an important avenue for Trump