By Nathan Layne and James Oliphant
June 5 (Reuters) – Donald Trump plans to release a series of short TikTok videos aimed at young people with messages about inflation and other economic issues, two campaign advisers told Reuters, giving the first look at the Republican presidential candidate’s strategy. for the popular app.
Trump joined TikTok on Saturday with an opening video for an Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts event. The video underscores his campaign’s effort to appeal to young voters, particularly the men who form the core of UFC fandom.
The 13-second video, in which he is seen mingling with UFC fans, quickly racked up tens of millions of views, cementing Trump as a force on the Chinese-owned platform he once tried to ban as president. .
As of Wednesday, Trump’s account had 5.5 million followers on the app and 5.8 million likes.
As president, Trump attempted to ban TikTok by executive order, calling its owner, Chinese technology company ByteDance, a threat to national security, but the move was blocked by the courts.
In April, Democratic President Joe Biden, who will face Trump in the Nov. 5 election, signed a law that would ban TikTok in the United States unless ByteDance got rid of it.
Trump has yet to post on TikTok again, and his campaign has said little about how he planned to engage with the site’s 170 million American users, especially the group of young men who polls show lean Republican.
Tony Fabrizio, a veteran Republican pollster who recently joined the Trump campaign as a senior adviser, said the central message would be economic, tapping into frustration among young people with the rise in post-pandemic inflation that the Biden administration has fought. for braking.
“These voters are much more sensitive to the economy. They are more likely to talk about inflation, they are more likely to say their personal finances have gotten worse,” Fabrizio said in an interview.
Trump’s adoption of TikTok marks a significant advance in his social media campaign strategy, which has focused on the often ranting-filled messages he posts on Truth Social, the platform he launched and controls.
(reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; James Oliphant in Washington and Helen Coster in New York. Edited in Spanish by Juana Casas)
