Trump may be a star on TikTok but Republicans aren't following his lead

At the beginning of June, former President Donald Trump went somewhere no Republican political leader had gone before.

“The president is now on TikTok,” declared Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White in a video on the platform. Standing next to him, Trump added, “It’s my honor.”

The post cuts to a series of back-to-back clips where the former president attends a UFC fight and greets supporters, ending with him asking, “That was a good walk on, right?”

It lasts 13 seconds and has more than 166 million views.

In the two months since launching his account, Trump has racked up over 9 million TikTok followers. The decision to join the platform was a departure from his previous policy advocating to ban the app over national security concerns. TikTok is owned by Chinese company Byte Dance.

Still, while Trump has changed his position on the popular social media app and now campaigns to protect it, his Republican colleagues are noticeably absent on the platform. According to an NPR analysis, zero Republican members of the House of Representatives or the Senate have accounts as of July 1. Just a handful of GOP challengers in major down-ballot races do.

It’s a divide within the party that some conservative digital strategists argue needs mending in order for Republicans to keep pace with Democrats and adapt to the changing ways the electorate gets information.

“We can't be picky about where we reach voters, especially as it's getting more and more difficult to reach voters,” explained Eric Wilson, the executive director for the Center for Campaign Innovation and a Republican digital strategist. He argued there are ways to maneuver the security concerns of using TikTok, including avoiding Wi-Fi and using personal devices.

Democrats rely more heavily on turnout from younger voters, but Republicans have a presence there as well, and a number of conservative influencers have gained followings on the platform.

The Republican National Committee has also engaged with influencers and content creators in the past, most recently credentialing more than 70 individuals for their party convention.

There may be an appetite for politics on TikTok as well. Posts about Trump increased nearly eightfold after the assassination attempt on his life, according to a recent report from the company Zelf, which tracks TikTok analytics. Notably, Vice President Harris also saw a boost in posts, skewing positive, after President Biden ended his campaign and endorsed her.

Nevertheless, 90% of the House Republicans voted in support of banning TikTok if it doesn’t divest from its Chinese ownership, and with less of a pressing need to appeal to young voters than Democrats do, GOP strategist Wilson argues Republicans could see joining the platform as “hypocritical.”

“There was a moment where Republicans could either embrace it or ban it. I think we're past that,” he continued. “We've got to get our message to as many people, for example, you may not like eating tomatoes, but you better show up at the County Tomato Festival if that's where the voters are.”

Trump stands alone

Rep. Kat Cammak, R-Fla., does not feel the need to show up at the metaphorical tomato festival that is TikTok.

“I'm not ever in danger of having to navigate that minefield of, ‘Is this hypocritical? Is this a double standard?’ Because I will never be on that app,” she declared. “I'll never have an account.”

Cammak, who is 36 and a millennial, is one of the youngest Republican members in the House. She’s active on platforms like X, formally known as Twitter, and Instagram, but argued her party doesn’t need to be everywhere to appeal to younger voters.

That said, Cammak still stands by Trump’s decision — even as it deviates from the party.

“Anyone who knows President Trump knows that he is a man who does what he wants to do,” she said. “I don't think anyone will have any sway, per se, of what he wants to do in terms of his communication style.”

“I think it’s kind of a necessary evil,” admitted Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who also has steered clear of TikTok. But he thinks it could be a winning strategy for Republicans in the future, whether he and his colleagues like it or not.

“These are the rules, and it's an effective marketing tool,” he said. “I think it's an avenue that we will take, and I hope [Trump’s] successful with it.”

Where the voters are

The former president may be the lone Republican leader on the app, but his presence has been celebrated by conservative influencers.

“You have the most famous man in the world joining the most viral platform in the world,” said John McEntee, a former White House official turned TikToker. “That combination of those two things probably helped get it off that quickly.”

Since leaving the Trump administration, McEntee has racked up a following of nearly 3 million on the TikTok he runs for his business, but there’s another side of his work that he doesn’t discuss on the platform. The former White House aide serves as a senior adviser for the Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 — a role that the then-Biden campaign highlighted on their own TikTok page in June. But in McEntee’s posts, he sticks to Trump-aligned talking points and largely makes fun of Democrats.

McEntee interpreted the Trump campaign joining TikTok as another move to target new voting blocs, like young voters, not traditionally associated with the party.

"If you can speak to young people on an app that they are on, about the issues they care about, or at least just show, 'hey, I'm kind of on your team. I'm kind of pro-TikTok,'" he explained. "I just think that's so valuable. And him and his team realized that."

But the political impact of TikTok on the 2024 election remains uncertain.

Katie Harbath, a Republican digital strategist, argued that TikTok is unlikely to move the needle in this race, but Trump needs to be there to speak to the supporters he has and the ones he doesn’t want to lose.

“TikTok is not necessarily the tool to go and find persuadable voters,” said Harbath, who serves as the global affairs officer at the technology consulting firm Duco Experts. “It is the place to continue to engage with your base, to help with fundraising and also ‘get out the vote’ when it gets to the time of people going to the polls,” she added.

Republicans have trailed Democrats among voters under 30 in the last three major elections, but over the past year, NPR/PBS News/Marist polling has shown their gap in support narrowing.

Since launching her campaign, Vice President Harris has put an emphasis on engagement with young voters online, including launching a personal TikTok account. Harbath argued Harris’ growing footprint there increases the importance of Republicans being on the platform.

“Trump and GOP influencers already had a massive presence on TikTok and now Harris is trying to catch up. So in that sense her increased presence will require the GOP to not only continue to invest in TikTok but perhaps even more so,” she said.

“I expect over the coming months we'll sometimes see Harris content doing better and sometimes Trump. Just like the polls, this will all take time to settle,” she added. “What these last two and a half weeks have done is cemented TikTok's role in this election — all despite the ban.”