Old Clips of Trump Repeatedly Promising to Ban TikTok Surface After Trump Threw Social Media Platform Lifeline

Old clips of Donald Trump repeatedly pledging to ban TikTok have resurfaced after the incoming president threw the social media platform a lifeline as the nationwide ban was set to go into effect.

A montage of the clips shared to X included video of Trump speaking in interviews, talking with reporters and in video messages regarding blocking the app.

"When I wanted to disable TikTok three years ago, I was met with opposition from RINOs, Democrats and everyone else. They actually went to court in an effort to stop me," the president-elect said in a recorded message.

"We're looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things, there are a couple of options but a lot of things are happening so we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters in another clip in front of a helicopter.

Other clips included Trump mentioning the possible TikTok ban briefly to the press, and in another clip Trump spoke about the ban in an interview with Fox News.

After the TikTok ban was passed during Biden's presidency, the ban briefly went into effect for about 12 hours on Jan. 19 before American users were granted access again. In the message users were shown upon their return, the app thanked "President Trump" for working with the app to restore service.

Following this message from TikTok, many users took to social media to remind others that Trump was the one who initially pitched the TikTok ban.

"'we thank donald trump-' HE IS THE REASON TIKTOK IS BANNED IN AMERICA IN THE FIRST PLACE NEVER FORGET," one user tweeted. "This is EXACTLY what he wanted... user your brain," another user wrote.

Others shared headlines from news articles from Trump's first term about his push to ban the app, or shared previous Truth Social posts where he discussed the ban.

Trump announced the return of TikTok at his "Make American Great Again Rally" on Sunday to the cheers of his supporters. He proclaimed that he "likes TikTok" after telling the crowd that his efforts on the app helped him win the youth vote this election by 36 points.

However, while more young voters did vote for Trump in 2024, Kamala Harris beat him, as reported by CNN.