Trump Back on TikTok: Young People “Owe Him Big”

Tik Tok Headquarters in Culver City, California, June 2024. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

On October 6, 2025, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance returned to the popular social media app TikTok after an almost year-long hiatus. This comes after a proposed agreement last month between the White House and China’s President Xi Jinping to change ownership of the app to an American company.

The President and Vice President have expressed pride over the American allocation of TikTok in their first videos posted since November 2024. Trump accounted how he “saved TikTok” and reminded young Americans that they “owe him big,” as TikTok’s largest demographic is young creatives and activists. In another TikTok, Vance told viewers his page will be used to "update you on what’s going on politically” and captioned the post, “Glad to be back on TikTok thanks to President Trump!” 

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company, and has presented a safety concern for the U.S. government, as it has been proven that the app’s algorithm stores a large amount of American’s personal information. Trump’s new deal includes an executive order signed in September 2025 that formally declares his plan to sell TikTok to a U.S. company, which will be valued at around $14 billion. The order is classified as a “qualified divestiture,” a term which means the foreign application has been sold to a new entity to address national security concerns. 

The White House has recently come out with a specific consortium of American investors that will take control of TikTok, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and the MGX fund. Oracle will be in charge of American user data stored in the app’s algorithm. Trump has said that Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison is directly involved with the ownership and will be “playing a very big part.” Other business figures that will be among the new investors include News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch and Dell’s Michael Dell. The main three companies, Oracle, Silver Lake, and the MGX fund, will have a combined 45% stake in the entity, with existing ByteDance investors and other stakeholders owning 35%. ByteDance will retain less than 20% of the company’s stake.

The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled TikTok to be of official security concern in January 2025 and upheld a threat to ban the app if a deal was not met within two days. The decision was based on the Protecting Americans from Foreign Controlled Applications Law which bans all apps controlled by U.S. “foreign adversaries,” including any app owned by ByteDance. The ruling was highly contentious, as debates between privacy and freedom of expression took place in the courts and the public forum. Many Americans, especially teenagers and young-adults, saw the potential inability to post freely on TikTok as an overreach on their First Amendment rights, a position supported by Trump. Even before taking office, Trump vowed to “save” the app and signed an executive order pausing the Supreme Court’s decision for an extended period of 75 days on his first day in office. He later extended the pause for another three months through a new executive order.

The President’s support for TikTok stands in opposition to his stance before his bid for re-election, when he was against the app’s presence in the U.S. The President’s comments on the app date back to 2020, where he stated, “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States.” In August of 2020 he issued an executive order forcing ByteDance to divest its interests in the U.S. or face sanctions. Specifically, the order warned citizens that TikTok, “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information.” In 2021, the order was struck down by then President Biden and Congress began new conversations about the app’s future.

However, during his 2024 election campaign, Trump stressed the app’s importance, saying younger generations “will go crazy without it.” This follows the success Trump had on the platform in launching his reelection bid, as it became an important space in which to connect with younger voters. The young voter turnout exceeded the Republican party’s expectations in 2024, a demographic that has “not been particularly good to Republicans in decades,” says Republican strategist Brian Seitchik.

Many users of the app are thankful for the efforts of the government to keep TikTok alive, as it is not just a forum for creative short videos, but it is also a major marketing tool for many brands and online influencers. From posting brand deals to gaining enough followers to launch their own companies, many Americans rely on the app as a source of income, and would certainly face major challenges if it were to disappear. The success of TikTok comes from its unique algorithm that other social media platforms do not have, making TikTok the only app where an aspiring influencer can “find success overnight,” according to comedy creator Ross Smith. The app is also a major way younger generations receive news on world events, and without it, there are concerns that the public may be less informed.

With the prospect of TikTok being sold to American investors, many Americans are fearful that the Trump administration will exercise greater control over the app and potentially use it to push a political agenda. There are additional concerns about conflicts of interests. For example, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is close friends with Trump, and has personally supported many of his initiatives. These concerns have caused many Americans to doubt the app will remain as it once was. Kelsey Chickering, an employee for a market research company, has stated, “The jury's out on whether this new, US-only, app will be a true replicate of the old one, with just as powerful of an algorithm and experience.”