Uh, What? Trump Rants About TikTok After Being Asked About SpaceX
Donald Trump derailed an event about his Trump Accounts to brag about his social media numbers.

Donald Trump announced Monday that a slew of tech companies are expected to contribute to his eponymously named childhood investment accounts. But when asked to elaborate on the financial backing behind Trump Accounts, the president suddenly trailed off into a lengthy rant about his popularity on TikTok.
“On the Trump accounts—the SpaceX president has said that she is going to donate shares to the Trump accounts,” said Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger, referring to Gwynne Shotwell. “Have you spoken at all with Elon Musk about further share donations as well as other corporate—about share donations?”
“I’m like a cheerleader for geniuses,” Trump started before almost immediately switching the topic. “Now there’s a thing called TikTok, have you heard of it?”
Trump recalled a segment he had seen recently on Fox Business’s Mornings With Maria. “It was announced about two days ago, the new numbers just came out. Do you know who the number one person on TikTok is by far? Trump. Me.
“I’m number one. Like Taylor Swift was number 11. I’m number one, by far,” Trump repeated.
The president then suggested that the social media company’s influence couldn’t be too dangerous, since he was such a hot topic on the platform.
“Maybe they’re bad, maybe they’re not,” Trump said. “I know one thing: Great American people, tremendous businesspeople and companies, bought it.
“American companies, great ones, own our TikTok, and it’s very influential, but I’m number one by a lot,” he continued. “I think it helped me win the election in a landslide, if I tell you the truth.”
Trump tried and failed to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app during his first term in the White House. At the time, the White House said there were national security concerns associated with allowing TikTok to operate without U.S. intervention, claiming that the social media platform had created a back door for the Chinese government to access American data.
Congress passed a bipartisan ban on TikTok in 2024, yet American access to the app has prevailed due to negotiations that transferred domestic control of TikTok’s U.S. business to American investors. The principal investors in TikTok’s U.S. operations are Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, who are responsible for data protection and content moderation within national boundaries.



