President Donald Trump, 74, announced that he’s planning on banning the popular social media app TikTok, from the United States on July 31 and fans of comedian Sarah Cooper, 42, think it’s all because of her. She is known for often posting various videos of herself mocking Trump by lip syncing to some of his political speeches and interviews on the Chinese-owned app, and Twitter users feel like she is scaring him and “rattling his cage.”
https://twitter.com/KingTeo19/status/1289395199068614657?s=20
“You know he’s banning TikTok in direct response to you, right? I love it. You’re rattling his cage and his brain so bad and we’re all witness to it,” one Twitter user wrote in response to a Trump-mocking video Sarah posted on July 24, one week before Trump spoke publicly about the TikTok ban. “Sarah Cooper now occupies the first floor of trump’s head,” another user tweeted. “Who else thinks that Donald Trump wants to ban TickTock because of Sarah Cooper’s hilarious videos?” a third asked.
Who else thinks that Donald Trump wants to ban TickTock because of Sarah Cooper’s hilarious videos?
— KatMcButterfly (@KatMcButterfly) July 31, 2020
Here are five things you should know about Sarah and the Trump TikTok situation.
1. On the same day Trump spoke out about his plans to ban TikTok, Sarah posted another mocking video that included her lip syncing his words about the app. “We may be banning TikTok, we may be doing some other things or a couple of options, but a lot of things are happening so we’ll see what happens. We are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok,” Trump’s voice can be heard saying as Sarah’s mouth moves and her hair blows up in the air in the funny TikTok video, which can be seen below.
How to tick tack pic.twitter.com/1Mn8nk363f
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) July 31, 2020
Sarah’s latest video comes on the heels of Trump publicly saying he “has the authority” to ban the app while he was aboard Air Force One. “I can do it with an executive order or that (emergency economic powers)” he said while also explaining that he’s against a U.S. company buying TikTok’s American operations, as Microsoft was reportedly eyeing the purchase. After press reports questioned whether or not Trump had the authority to ban the app, the ACLU tweeted that doing so would be “a danger to free expression and technologically impractical.”
2. She has more than half a million followers on TikTok. The actress’ large following may have to do with the fact that she puts a lot of thought, time, and energy into her videos and has gained a lot of public exposure for them, especially her Trump-related content.
3. She’s an author. The amusing influencer, who is based in New York City, has written three humorous self-help books in the span of three years. They include the 2016 books, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings and Draw What Success Looks Like, and the 2018 book, How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings.
4. Her career started in stand-up comedy and branched out over time. She began performing in Atlanta, GA while also working as a user experience designer for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, where she met her now husband Jeff Palm. Her 2014 blog post, 10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings went viral with five million views and she eventually left Google to pursue writing and comedy full time. In addition to writing and comedy, she worked as an actress in Home Movie: The Princess Bride, the “fan made” recreation of the the 1987 film, The Princess Bride.
5. She recently hosted an Instagram Live chat with U.S. Senator from California, Kamala Harris. She shared a snapshot of herself posing and smiling with the politician on July 22, which can be seen above. Kamala posted the interview, in which they talked about various topics, including the coronavirus pandemic, to her official YouTube channel.