Trump has officially taken over the @POTUS account
Donald Trump's new Twitter handle might be an even bigger deal than his swearing-in for the Twitter-obsessed president.
Barack Obama had been tweeting from the @POTUS handle for the past eight years, but as of Friday afternoon Trump has moved in to the social media feed. The name went from "President Obama" to "President Trump" moments after Trump took the oath of office.
The new description reads, "45th President of the United States. Working on behalf of the American people to make our country great again. Tweets may be archived http://wh.gov/privacy."
No one has tweeted yet from the new account, but all eyes are on the timeline for the first flurry from the new president. The @POTUS follower count will transfer from Obama to Trump, but will take time to build up as the page transitions.
It seems like Trump is reluctant to give up his prized personal handle -- @realDonaldTrump. Which makes sense, he has a lot of memories on there from his pre-president days. There was talk that he would keep writing on that account instead of the official presidential account. As Trump was giving his inaugural address his @realDonaldTrump account had yet to be updated and still called him "president-elect." It changed minutes later -- with new tweets flowing out, of course.
One of the first posts to Trump's new Twitter account came from the White House.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Friday was also a big day for other official Twitter accounts. Melania Trump took over @FLOTUS, while Mike Pence will now be tweeting from @VP. For Melania this is a big move. Her personal account hasn't been used since Election Day. This is her chance to step up her social media game, or at least attempt to participate online.
As for the Palm Springs-bound Obamas, they will now be relegated to their own personal Twitter accounts and other accounts made for former presidents. Twitter in an email announced the official account transitions. Here are the new accounts for anyone trying to keep up with the Obamas or to relive the Obama years.
@POTUS --> @POTUS44 --> @BarackObama
@FLOTUS --> @FLOTUS44 --> @MichelleObama
@WhiteHouse --> @ObamaWhiteHouse
@PressSec --> @PressSec44
UPDATE: Just past 2 p.m. ET on Jan. 20, 2017, the new POTUS account put out its first tweet under Trump. It wasn't anything too inflammatory or exciting and it wasn't even a complete sentence. It linked back to his Trump Facebook account where a longer post had a transcript of Trump's entire (16-minute) inaugural speech.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Topics X/Twitter Donald Trump
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
