With the 2024 election just six months away, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump appears to be trying to reach a younger demographic. The former president surprised supporters and critics alike when he launched a TikTok channel over the weekend and quickly amassed millions of followers.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Alex Clark, host of The Spillover, and Mary Morgan, host of Pop Culture Crisis, to discuss Trump’s about-face on the controversial platform and why he is the “pop culture president.”
Trump’s TikTok
While he was in office, Trump took issue with the fact that TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. He seemingly softened his stance earlier this year after lawmakers began laying the groundwork for a ban of the social media giant in the United States, and now he himself is on the platform.
Trump made his TikTok debut on Saturday with a video alongside Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White. White declared that “the president is now on TikTok,” to which Trump replied “it’s my honor.” The rest of the clip showed the GOP hopeful getting a hero’s welcome at the UFC 302 match in Newark, New Jersey.
@realdonaldtrump Launching my TikTok at @UFC ♬ original sound – President Donald J Trump
The post, which remains Trump’s only thus far, racked up more than 2 million ‘likes’ in the first 24 hours. According to Reuters, the former president’s @RealDonaldTrump account had garnered some 3 million followers by Sunday night.
Trump now has over 5.6 million followers. The post, meanwhile, has been viewed more than 88 million times and brought in some 6 million ‘likes.’ Comparatively, President Joe Biden’s re-election account, @BidenHQ, has just 360,000 followers and 4.7 million total ‘likes’ despite launching in mid-February and posting dozens of videos.
The ‘Pop Culture President’
While the media has been calling out Trump’s apparent flip-flop on TikTok, Megyn said she sees the value of being on it. “It’s one of those things where I am not a huge supporter of TikTok, but I am on TikTok because I want my message to be heard by these young people who are being indoctrinated with only left-wing thought,” she said. “Maybe we’ll get a few of them to see things in a different way.”
In Clark’s view, the overwhelming response to Trump’s account is telling. “You have to understand that Donald Trump is and always has been the pop culture president… and that is why he terrifies the left,” she explained. “He has his finger on the pulse of pop culture, and he is authentically cool in a way that the Democrats couldn’t manufacture in their wildest dreams for someone like Biden.”
She believes the social media strategy is simple. “All he has to do is have some Gen-Zers on his campaign help him create different videos that have to do different TikTok trends and he will become the biggest account on that platform,” Clark continued. “That will be huge for his campaign.”
Morgan agreed. “The only thing I was wondering about is why didn’t Trump make this decision sooner,” she said. “Trump is already popular with Gen-Z males… [and] I believe he will be the president that captures the Zoomer heart through this medium.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Clark and Morgan by tuning in to episode 811 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.