Why Trump’s change of heart on TikTok? This is about self-interest, not security | Emily Taylor

The man who once declared TikTok a national emergency' has detected a very different mood among young Americans

When asked for his reasons for delaying the ban on TikTok, President Trump, a man not unfamiliar with changing his mind, said: Because I got to use it."

This is quite some change of heart. It was he who, in 2020, signed an executive order citing the national emergency" posed by the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform. Five years later, Trump, now positioned as the saviour of TikTok, has said that he has a warm spot" for the platform. Coached by his son Barron, Trump amassed 15 million TikTok followers and says the platform is the reason he won the youth vote by 36 points (a claim that is not substantiated).

Emily Taylor is an associate fellow in the International Security Programme, Chatham House, CEO of Oxford Information Labs and editor of the Journal of Cyber Policy