President Biden's Foray Into TikTok

President Biden needs to connect with younger voters and prove wrong the justice department’s label of him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” But is TikTok the right platform?

His new account, bidenhq, is managed by his campaign staff, not by him personally (in case that isn’t obvious). The profile picture of Biden—with explosive, red-light glasses—might not be the image he wants to portray. If I didn’t know this was real, I might think it was a parody account.

The account is a strange mix of videos. Of the 20 videos posted so far, 12 are about former President Trump, and two compare Trump and Biden. Some of them show Trump “confused on stage” and describe Trump as “rambling incoherently.”

In the first video posted on the account, Biden is doing his best to be cool. In a clearly edited, fast-paced Q&A, Biden answers popular-culture questions. The caption reads, “lol hey guys."

During his first show back as The Daily Show host, John Stewart found his target. In addition to multiple jokes about both candidates’ age, he showed a clip from that first TikTok video. When asked whether he prefers Jason Kelce or Travis Kelce, Biden said, “Mama Kelce. I understand she makes great chocolate chip cookies.” Stewart made him look silly and, as always, the clip out of context looked worse.

At this point, the account has 156.2k followers, not a great showing compared to, for example, Taylor Swift with 24.8 million. Although Biden wants to reach younger voters on TikTok, the medium is an odd choice. The app is banned on government-issued devices so, in a way, this feels like an integrity issue. Despite security concerns that prevent the president himself from having the app on a phone, he’s using the app for his campaign.