A split photo of President Donald Trump on Sunday, Sept. 14, and the late Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Sept. 10, moments before his assassination. ((L) Francis Chung via Getty Images, (R) Tess Crowley via AP)
He noted the platform's popularity among American youth and emphasized that Kirk encouraged its use to engage with young people.
"Charlie was very much in favor of TikTok; he liked TikTok," he added. "He said, you know, ‘you should use it.’"
Trump credited Kirk for leveraging social media platforms like TikTok to get "massive numbers of youth" out to vote for him and Republicans in 2024.
"If you take a look at my numbers, no Republican has ever done anything like it. We got massive numbers of youth, and by the way, helped very much by Charlie Kirk," he said, adding, "It probably had a pretty big effect on the election because we won the election by a lot."
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Trump said he wasn't initially a fan of TikTok, but later credited the platform for helping him win the 2024 election. (Getty Images)
"I had a great call with President Xi and, as you know, we approved the TikTok deal, and we're in the process. We have some great investors, some of the biggest in the world, American investors, great people, and we look forward to getting that deal closed," he said.
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Pressed on whether the deal is fully approved, Trump answered, "I think so. And when you say fully approved, I don't know what that means, we have to get it signed, I guess. I guess it could be a formality. I found his word to be very good."
"They wanted to see it," he said of China, "and I can tell you, the young people in our country wanted to see it stay open very badly."
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/president-trump-says-charlie-kirk-approved-tiktok-amid-china-divestment-deal