On the day of the inauguration, the presidency itself wasn’t the only changeover between Former President Barack Obama and now-President Donald Trump. Along with executive powers over the United States, the @POTUS Twitter handle was given to President Donald Trump. Former President Barack Obama’s account and all of his tweets have been archived under the new handle @POTUS44.
The Twitter handle @POTUS now only includes tweets from Trump and his team.
All of the accounts following @POTUS under the Obama administration have been automatically shifted to follow both Trump’s new @POTUS account and Obama’s @POTUS44 account, according to National Public Radio. The automatic switch of followers from Obama to Trump has drawn attention from social media users, including some at John Brown University.
Tiffany Aguirre, sophomore biology major at JBU, said she was unhappy with this decision: “I’m slightly irritable about this,” she said. She added that she always looked forward to Obama’s “encouraging” tweets, and she does not think Trump’s tweets will have the same positive tone.
Elizabeth Jones, sophomore worship arts major, said that she did not like that all of Obama’s followers are now automatically following Trump.
“I felt that it was rude,” Jones said.
Both Trump and Obama will also keep their personal Twitter accounts, @realDonaldTrump and
@BarackObama. According to NPR, it is not expected that Obama will continue to use the @POTUS44 account, but it will remain an archive for his tweets during his time as president. Anyone following this new archive handle will be able to review the history of tweets during Obama’s eight-year presidency.
Trump’s @POTUS account is run by Director of Social Media Dan Scavino Jr. and President Trump. Tweets made directly by the new president end with the signature “-DJT.” The president is also still active on his personal account,
@realDonaldTrump.
So far, President Trump has retweeted many of his
@realDonaldTrump tweets by his @POTUS handle.