President Trump is deploying his Cabinet not only across the country to promote his agenda in an election year but also across social media algorithms. An early adopter of TikTok, the president created his own campaign account in 2024, and the White House made its first official account last year. Now the administration is ramping up its social media presence.
Nearly every Cabinet-level agency created its own verified TikTok account and launched them on the same night in July. The White House created an additional TikTok account simply titled “Cabinet” to collate all the secretaries’ content in one place.
“The memes. The hype. The patriotism. The Cabinet is on TikTok. New platform, same energy,” the White House’s X account posted on July 21.
One month later, the Department of Homeland Security leads the pack with the most TikTok followers at around 165,000. The most prolific poster at 73 videos has been the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has also been the agency most prone to posting cartoon content or artificial intelligence-generated videos. The Commerce Department sits in last place, with around 5,500 followers and only six videos posted. Five departments have not yet created an account, including the State Department, the Department of War, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Office of Management and Budget.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s use of social media is an essential action in support of front-line law enforcement and homeland security,” an agency spokesman told RCP. “It enables the department to share real-time public safety alerts, maintain public trust critical for national security, and counter misinformation from media outlets. This activity is directly tied to DHS’s core mission of defending the homeland.”
The posts can be edgy, even offensive to some people. The most popular video on DHS’s account is a collage of federal agents arresting illegal aliens to the tune of Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas.”
The Cabinet is the latest in a string of conservative content flooding the world’s fifth-most-popular social media platform. With as many as 170 million users in the United States alone, the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers are ushering in a new stage of political communication.
In the White House:
President Barack Obama holds his BlackBerry as he walks at Sidwell Friends School in Bethesda, Md.
AP
Since the advent of social media, U.S. presidents haven’t exactly been early adopters. Barack Obama made waves and raised security concerns when he insisted on having his own personal BlackBerry phone. In 2015, Obama launched his own Facebook account, which was used to post administration updates and share speech clips. The Biden administration began to post more short-form content on X, Instagram, and Facebook but banned TikTok from download on government devices due to security concerns. The second Trump administration has flipped the paradigm, insisting that a new ownership deal has made TikTok safe and fair game for the federal government itself to leverage.
Since August 2025, the White House has amassed 7.1 million TikTok followers and has consistently posted dozens of videos each week. The content ranges from media footage of the president to cartoon promotions of the various work of the administration. The White House posted clips of press secretary Karoline Leavitt with a sentimental song to wish her farewell as she leaves the administration at the end of this month. Another includes several clips of AI-generated depictions of the Founding Fathers ahead of the celebrations for the nation’s 250th birthday.
The White House’s social media footprint has now become the template across the government. In the past month, agencies have posted videos of their respective secretaries doing brief interviews or humorous videos that nod to the agency’s role. The Department of the Interior account is full of animal videos with trending music and audio from TikTok. The Department of Transportation posted a cartoon depicting the upcoming Grand Prix through the streets of Washington as if it were a Nintendo race.
The mass move to TikTok could be the newest phase in governmental communications. Joshua Scacco, director of the Center for Sustainable Democracy at the University of South Florida, has studied the ways political leaders connect with everyday Americans.
“In 2024, Donald Trump was able to make some inroads with younger men ages 18 to 24, so that could be some of the reason why you’re seeing Republicans moving into these spaces where they know they might be able to convince apathetic, prospective, or even inconsistent voters,” Scacco told RCP. “Political leaders now have to chase their audiences, and TikTok is one of those places where the audiences are.”
President Bush’s Scottish terrier, Barney, had his own website dedicated to videos of the dog’s daily routine and antics.
AP
The White House has attempted to make the chief executive more relatable and accessible since the Clinton administration first debuted a White House website, Scacco said. George W. Bush posted videos of the family dog onto the website’s “Barney Cam.” The Obama administration ramped up the effort, creating accounts on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter but used it to post policy announcements and footage of the president. YouTube is still the most popular platform across all age groups for content sharing, but Trump expanded the White House’s reach even further when the administration launched the first-ever corporate TikTok account.
“There’s lots of questions about whether he is too brash on social media, but if you think about the communication style of many people on Twitter, it is much more brash,” Scacco said. “It is much more off the cuff, informal, and oftentimes uncivil. What presidents realized throughout recent history is they could advance their larger communication goals and adapt to new technology and audiences available.”
The president’s preferred social media remains Truth Social, a platform he launched in 2022 after he was banned from Twitter. But his overall online popularity is surpassing other large accounts. The official White House X account and the president’s personal X account have 4 million followers. The @potus account garnered more than 80 million views from 2025 to March of this year, according to internal documents RCP reviewed. The White House’s X account received around 6 billion total impressions over the same period – more than accounts for Google, Wendy’s, and NASA.
“The success of the Trump administration’s social media pages speaks for itself. Through engaging posts and viral memes, the White House is successfully communicating the President’s extremely popular agenda and driving record engagement,” White House Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales told RCP. “Unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration has a good story to tell: President Trump has delivered the most secure border in history, the largest middle-class tax cut ever, trillions in investments, and the lowest crime rate since 1900. The White House will continue to share President Trump’s historic wins for the American people across as many platforms and with as many audiences as possible with unprecedented success.”
Trump has often told reporters that he is “Number One” on TikTok and even posted a TikTok about it.
President Trump spoke from the Oval Office about the popularity of his TikTok account.
AP
“As I stand by the Declaration of Independence, which is a great honor, I keep hearing so much about TikTok and all of the influence they have and how it’s unfair and how it’s this and that. But here’s the only problem: I’m number one on TikTok,” Trump said from the Oval Office. He then held up a graphic showing that 425 billion users had viewed a video on TikTok with a #Trump marker. “Billions and billions of people are looking at Trump, and I keep hearing about the influence other people have. I don’t know. How come I’m number one if they have so much influence? There’s your number, so I think we have influence, too. And I’m saying, Stop Communism.”
The graphic came from TikTok CEO Shou Chew, who said that Trump is the most watched and followed world leader on TikTok, not on the entire platform (Italian influencer Khaby Lame has over 162 million followers compared to Trump’s 16.8 million on his personal account and 7.1 million on the White House’s account).
“Free TikTok!”
In 2024, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, commonly called the TikTok Ban. Bipartisan lawmakers said that the Chinese-based parent company ByteDance posed a national security threat to Americans’ data. The Supreme Court upheld the ban days before Trump was inaugurated for the second time. But Trump intervened at the 11th hour to keep the app from going dark.
Trump signed executive orders to delay the ban from taking effect and then launched a White House account in August. In January of this year, the new deal was finally closed, creating the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. The joint venture bought the algorithm license from ByteDance and then retrained it on American user data stored in the United States. ByteDance retains a seat on the board and a 19.99% share in TikTok, the maximum amount allowed under law. For some, that doesn’t eliminate the security concerns.
“If you have to use a Microsoft Office product in your daily job, you don’t actually own the Word download or Excel or Outlook,” Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Sobolik told RCP. “That software is owned, updated, and controlled by Microsoft, but they give us a license to download and use it. It’s similar with TikTok. The U.S. Joint Venture can use the algorithm to run the app, but the ability to write the code for the algorithm and potentially manipulate it still rests with ByteDance.”
Nevertheless, the Office of Legal Counsel issued a slip opinion in July and determined that the new ownership structure meets the demands of federal law and is now safe to use, though it deferred the question of whether government employees should download the app to each agency’s rules on workplace productivity. The OMB followed suit on Aug. 11 with a memorandum rescinding the ban on downloading the app to government devices. After the Cabinet joined TikTok, Sobolik said the message downplays a threat from China.
“They’re watering down the national security threats that the app still poses,” Sobolik said. “The algorithm can still be manipulated by an adversary of the United States to advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.”
The videos run the gamut of content. Many repost the president’s own TikTok account. Others hop onto common social media trends and personalize them for each agency. For example, the Internet has been aghast and enraptured by a genetically deformed raccoon named Jimothy and a video clip of him running across a lawn. Multiple government agencies replayed the clip with the caption “on his way to buy from small business” and “on his way to tell you to sign up for VA benefits.”
Other videos highlight the work of departments and secretaries with a campaign flair. While government officials are not allowed to openly campaign, the Trump administration is deploying its Cabinet across the country to visit key midterm election districts. In a video posted to the Department of Veterans Affairs account on Tuesday, Secretary Doug Collins is seen visiting a veterans’ home in Iowa, followed closely by Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for U.S. Senate. Neither discussed the election, but the president’s endorsed candidate got plenty of screen time in the video.
SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler’s recent appearance in a TikTok video drew criticism for her awkward gait and a mysteriously empty binder.
AP
Social media presence is not without its risks in the court of public opinion. A video posted to the Small Business Administration account on Friday featured SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler holding what appeared to be an empty binder and walking awkwardly down a hallway while answering questions from the staffer behind the camera. She revealed that SBA administrators do not always get a seat in the Cabinet, which is what makes her role in the Trump administration unique. But many of the comments on TikTok and on X poked fun at her walking style. “Is this the first time Kelly Loeffler has ever walked?” one user asked.
“The Trump Administration is committed to unprecedented transparency and delivering timely information to the American people. As millions of small business owners use TikTok to grow and scale their operations, the SBA is joining the platform to deliver timely, relevant information directly to them – expanding access to federal resources and ensuring America’s small businesses have the tools to compete and succeed,” an SBA spokesperson told RCP about the account.
Based on the variety of content and approaches, it appears that each TikTok account is managed within the department. However, most departments deferred RCP’s requests for comment to the White House. The White House declined RCP’s request for an interview with the Office of Digital Strategy.
On Capitol Hill:
Both political parties want access to the fame and national attention TikTok can bring. More than 100 members of Congress have launched TikTok accounts. Because most TikTok users tend to be young and lean left, the platform has been assumed to be more friendly to liberal content. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, and New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez boast 3.7 million and 4.1 million TikTok followers, respectively. But conservative lawmakers say the app is an easy and friendly way to let the rest of the world know what they’re up to, particularly outside of Washington.
“My staff told me to get on TikTok, and I said okay,” Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican, told RCP. He’s amassed more than 1 million followers across X and Instagram and nearly 822,000 on TikTok. His two most popular TikToks feature him making a sandwich at home in Madisonville, La., and introducing the Internet to his garage elliptical bike, affectionately named Margaret.
“People are drowning in politics, and I talk about politics all day with you guys [the press]. When I go on TikTok, I think people just want to know what you’re like in a personal sense,” Kennedy said. “I’ve always believed, and I still believe, that you should always be yourself, unless you suck.”
Sen. John Kennedy records his own TikTok videos, which are then edited and posted by staff members.
AP
Communications director Nick Petromelis tells Kennedy about twice per week to record a video. Then the senator decides what he wants to shoot, films himself, and sends the recordings to his staff, who edit and post the video. The online reaction has been explosive, with multiple users clipping Kennedy’s most comedic one-liners in videos called fan edits. On many, users call the senator a national treasure.
“People outside of [Washington] D.C. don’t pay attention to what’s happening in politics, but TikTok is a place where people go to escape all of that, and we wanted to tap into it,” Petromelis said. “We’re not trying to manufacture him to be some sort of TikTok personality. What people see on TikTok is the same person that you know I interact with every single day.”
Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, frequently lip-syncs to popular songs or trends on TikTok. In others, he discusses what’s on the to-do list in Washington that week, explains a portion of the appropriations process, or highlights Idaho’s potato industry.
“They’re actually really fun to do,” Simpson said. “It has been amazing to me how many people who I don’t know from the man in the moon, in airports and other places, who come up to me and say they love my social media.”
Beyond the clout, Simpson said he wants his account to show a side of him that his traditional media appearances don’t.
“All they [constituents] ever see of us is what they see on the news, which is us usually yelling at each other, but they don’t know that’s not our whole life. We’re just normal people,” Simpson said.
Lexi Hamel, Simpson’s senior advisor and communications director, said she expects to see more Republicans following the lead of the president, the Cabinet, and GOP lawmakers to join the platform.
“If you look at any poll, Congress has a very unfavorable rating,” Hamel said. “TikTok gives this great opportunity to reach people. I tell my boss all the time that these videos make you and your colleagues look human and normal, and I think that is so appealing to people.”
Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho posts videos discussing his to-do list, explaining appropriations processes, or highlighting his state’s potato industry.
Simpson for Congress
But the members do have some red lines. Hamel tries to avoid “cringe” content and keep the account focused on Simpson’s work and district. Petromelis said he will not use AI-generated content in Kennedy’s videos. Kennedy said he won’t use his platform to be combative or to participate in the week’s latest trend.
“Of course there are things that irritate me, but I’ll never do a video on that. I don’t get nearly enough credit for the things I choose not to say,” Kennedy said. “I dance like a herd of buffalo, so I doubt very seriously that you will see me dancing.”
Other Republicans use their platforms for political content. Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas uses both a personal and a professional account to share his media appearances and to promote conservative arguments to his algorithm.
“I want to make sure that whenever [Americans] go on the platform, they’re not being inundated with some bizarre [Congresswoman] AOC video, followed by some crazy transgender activist, followed by some illegal alien making political statements, followed by whatever other bizarre, left-wing, political fad is in vogue,” Gill said. “Whenever most voters of any age see the difference between our policy prescriptions and the Left, they’re going to be with us, and we want to make sure people on TikTok are seeing that.”
Gill welcomes the arrival of the Cabinet to the platform.
“It’s an incredible thing to see so many Cabinet officials and people in the administration [on TikTok]. I think we need more members of Congress on the platform to get our message out to voters,” Gill said. “Not having Republicans on TikTok is tantamount to one-sided disarmament, and that’s not how we play politics anymore.”
Carolina Lumetta is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics. Follow her on X @CarolinaLumetta.
