Donald Trump is surging in popularity on the controversial TikTok app, and this is helping to drive his growing support among young people, argues Raheem Kassam. The Editor-in-Chief of The National Pulse believes Trump is cutting through on the platform, where Biden has been courting influencers for years, because of his natural authenticity.
“Steve, you and I don’t like it, but we’re big enough and ugly enough to admit… there are gains to be made [on] TikTok,” Kassam told War Room host Stephen K. Bannon. “I’m not on TikTok; I don’t encourage anybody to go on TikTok—but look at the way that younger people are responding to President Trump on TikTok,” he continued.
Kassam cited Trump’s viral face-off with YouTube personality, WWE wrestler, and influencer boxer Logan Paul, which has been viewed by millions of people.
“He’s reaching young people in a way like never before,” Kassam said, noting rivals like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have failed to replicate this success because “there’s no authenticity,” while “Trump cuts through all the time.”
“Every piece of anecdotal evidence is showing us that young people are more and more interested in what the political right, the nationalist, populist right, has to say,” he stressed.
Why are young people shifting right in the United States? @RaheemKassam explains that, like it or not, Donald Trump’s authenticity-driven gains on TikTok are proving significant, citing his viral face-off with Logan Paul. pic.twitter.com/Wst6EkRWSo
— Jack Montgomery (@JackBMontgomery) June 13, 2024
Kassam also discussed the rise of the right in Europe, where young Germans singing Ausländer Raus (foreigners out) has gone viral, and parties like Poland’s populist Konfederacja (Confederation) party are now the top choice of 18-29-year-olds.
“Young people have realized their youth has been stolen” by Covid restrictions, debt, and the “mass importation of cheap migant labor that is rendering people with not a lot of honest work at their doorstep,” he explained.