U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the NATO Summit held at the Bestepe Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8, 2026.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Donald Trump touted himself as “Number One” multiple times this week on TikTok.
“New numbers just came out,” President Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “Do you know who is by far the number one person on TikTok? It’s Trump. It’s me,” he said. The president added that he had surpassed Taylor Swift, who was “11th” on the social media app.
As of July 9, President Trump has 16.7 million followers on TikTok. Taylor Swift has more than twice as many TikTok followers as President Trump, at 33.5 million as of July 9th.
The most followed person on the app is Kabane Lame, a Senegalese influencer known for her comedy skits. Lame has 162.3 million followers on the video-sharing platform. This is nearly 10 times higher than President Trump’s approval rating.
The second most followed person on TikTok after Lame is 22-year-old Charli D’Amelio, who rose to fame in late 2019 after her dance videos started going viral. She has 159.2 million followers.
“I was number one,” President Trump said at a NATO summit on Wednesday. “All these entertainers are 27th or 29th. It’s crazy. I don’t even understand it, but it means my words are out there.”
Sunday Truth Social’s post provides some clarity on President Trump’s claims. President Trump posted a message from TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, saying the president is the most followed world leader on the app.
When asked for comment on the discrepancy, the White House referred to a second Truth Social post in which President Trump reposted the original post.
A CNBC analysis found that Trump has the most followers on the app of any world leader. He is followed by El Salvador’s Naib Bukele with 12.9 million followers, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum with 9.3 million followers and France’s Emmanuel Macron with 7.3 million followers.
Many world leaders do not have TikTok accounts, including China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and many leaders of Middle Eastern countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has amassed 1.5 million followers on social platforms.
On the other side of the aisle, former Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against President Trump in the 2024 presidential election, has 10.1 million followers on the app. Former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden do not have official accounts.
President Trump’s TikTok content primarily consists of short videos of him sitting in the Oval Office speaking directly to his audience about the president’s various priorities, announcements, and initiatives.
Some videos seem more light-hearted than others, including one from May 26 where he explains why he nicknamed Democrats “Dumocrats.”
“It’s just a one-letter change,” he said in the video. “They seem like really stupid people.”
Another video from May shows the president grabbing late-night TV host Stephen Colbert, throwing him into an onstage trash can, and then dancing to the Village People’s hit “YMCA.”
He told the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week that he was using the platform to talk about America’s successes and “how bad communism is.”
On other social media platforms like X, the president has amassed 111.7 million followers. He has 44 million followers on Instagram and 12.9 million followers on Truth Social.
