The White House on 19 August launched its first official account on TikTok, the Chinese-owned video platform it once sought to outlaw. The verified @whitehouse handle opened with a 27-second montage of President Donald Trump declaring, “I am your voice,” accompanied by the caption “America we are BACK! What’s up TikTok?” Within the first few hours the account attracted more than 20,000 followers, tapping into an audience of roughly 170 million U.S. users. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move is intended to “communicate the historic successes President Trump has delivered” across as many platforms as possible. The president’s personal campaign account already counts about 15 million followers on TikTok, underscoring the app’s importance to his outreach to younger voters. The debut comes even as TikTok’s future in the United States remains unsettled. A 2024 bipartisan law, upheld by the Supreme Court, requires parent company ByteDance to sell the U.S. business or face a nationwide ban on national-security grounds. President Trump has paused enforcement three times, most recently pushing the deadline to 17 September while officials seek a sale to American investors. By opening an account before the deadline, the administration signals confidence that the app will continue to operate—at least in the near term—even as lawmakers press for stricter controls on Chinese access to American user data. Federal guidance still bars TikTok from government devices, leaving the White House’s digital pivot at odds with its own security policies and with congressional critics who say the extensions flout U.S. law.