Donald Trump Joins TikTok, Shares His First Video Amid Guilty Verdict

Former President Donald Trump has made another social media account days after being found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying court documents.

As previously reported by The Blast, Trump faced trial over a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. On Thursday, May 30, 2024, the jury delivered a historic guilty verdict, making Trump the first President to be convicted of a felony.

Three days after becoming a convicted felon, Donald Trump joined TikTok and gained over 2 million followers in 13 hours.

After the trial ended, former President Donald Trump claims he "would have testified," per NewsNation.

“The judge allowed them to go into everything I was ever involved in–not this case–everything I was ever involved in, which is a first. In other words, you could go into every single thing that I ever did [and ask], ‘Was he a bad boy here? Was he a bad boy there?’” he continued, seeming to indicate that if they investigated further, they would have found more crimes.

“But you would have been, you would have said something out of whack, like, ‘It was a beautiful sunny day,’ and it was actually raining out,” Trump continued.

Donald Trump also told the press outside of the courthouse, "We don’t have the same country anymore. We have a divided mess. We’re a nation in decline, serious decline, millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists, and they’re taking over our country."

"This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound, to hurt an opponent. A political opponent," the 77-year-old added. "And I think it's just a disgrace, and we'll keep fighting, we'll fight till the end, and we'll win because our country has gone to hell. We don't have the same country anymore, we have a divided mess."

Former President Donald Trump attended UFC 302 on Saturday, June 1, 2024, two days after his guilty verdict was read in the New York trial. As previously reported by The Blast, the New York jury, consisting of seven men and six women from New York, reached a verdict after only two days of deliberation.

He seemed unbothered by the guilty verdict as he went on with his life, meeting up with close friend and UFC CEO Dana White. As he walked out of Prudential Center in New Jersey, he was greeted with a standing ovation from fans.

Shortly after he watched Islam Makhachev retain his title, Trump joined TikTok, sharing his experience at the event. This comes despite previously attempting to get the social media app banned.

Donald Trump posted his first TikTok video on his new account, @realdonaldtrump, late Saturday night. The video shows his introduction at UFC 302.

The former President, who referred to himself as President Donald Trump in his TikTok profile, was seen greeting fans shortly after the UFC CEO announced, “The president is now on TikTok."

"It’s my honor,” Trump added.

According to Variety, approximately 13 hours after creating a TikTok, he had gained over 2 million followers. "The Greatest President in the history of the United States," one of his new followers commented.

"Fastest I've ever hit the follow button," another said.

The video has received nearly 40 million views, over 91,000 comments, and 2.5 million likes.

"President Trump gained 200k followers in 1 hour just about what a boss," one user wrote. "This is the most American thing I’ve seen the whole year," another wrote, adding three American flag emojis.

"I'm so ready!! Now Tiktok is gonna get fun!" a third said.

This may shock some, as Donald Trump previously tried to ban the social media app, citing a "credible" threat to U.S. National Security.

“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump said, per Variety, in an executive order issued in August 2020.

At the time, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said, “Today the President issued an order prohibiting the transaction that resulted in the acquisition of Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, by the Chinese company ByteDance."

"CFIUS conducted an exhaustive review of the case and unanimously recommended this action to the President in order to protect U.S. users from exploitation of their personal data," he added.