Donald Trump is expected to continue using his personal Twitter account. (Photo by Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images)
Donald Trump is expected to continue using his famous personal Twitter account, @RealDonaldTrump, where he has 20.5 million followers. Trump will have two Twitter accounts to use, as the Obama Administration is also giving up @POTUS. @WhiteHouse and other official Twitter accounts will also be available for the Trump team. After the swearing-in ceremony, Trump started using the two accounts almost instantly.
Here are the first two tweets Trump sent on @POTUS:
On behalf of my entire family, THANK YOU! #InaugurationDay
At @RealDonaldTrump, Trump posted links to his Facebook page and quotes from his inaugural address.
January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.
In an interview with the Times of London, Trump said he will still use @RealDonaldTrump.
“I think I’ll keep it,” he said, adding that he has 46 million followers across various social media platforms. “When you think that you’re 46 million there, I’d rather just let that build up and just keep it @realDonaldTrump.”
By comparison to @RealDonaldTrump, @POTUS only has 13.7 million followers. The Obama Administration confirmed that @WhiteHouse, @VP, @FLOTUS, @PressSec, @LaCasaBlanca, @WHLive, @VPLive and @Cabinet will also be handed over to the Trump administration. When the Trump team officially takes over, the Obama Administration’s tweets will be available at @POTUS44.
Sean Spicer, Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, told the media back on January 2 that he thinks Trump will use both @POTUS and @RealDonaldTrump. “I think he’ll probably be tweeting from both, or whatever he chooses,” Spicer said.
Trump’s tweets have often been fodder for critics, but Kellyanne Conway told Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist that he won’t change how he uses Twitter. Conway also thinks that Trump’s comments often get misconstrued.
“Sometimes what he has said gets distorted or jaundiced or outright twisted into unrecognizable fashion,” she told Today. “We’ve all experienced that. People take a snippet or a headline and really bastardize it, which I think is unfortunate. I know it’s great clickbait. And I know it’s great for some ratings.”
Conway also defended Trump’s reactions to his critics and his reviews of Saturday Night Live and Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe speech.
“He rarely draws first blood,” Conway told Today. “But, again, why was it okay for President Obama — everybody swooned and thought it was a wonderful idea that he would engage pop culture on his own terms, and if Donald Trump does it a little bit differently through his social media platforms everybody feigns shock and dismay?”
A NBC News/Wall street Journal poll found that 69 percent of respondents say Trump’s Twitter use is a bad thing because his rapid messages can have “unintended major implications without careful review.” Only 26 percent approved of his Twitter use.