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President Donald Trump didn't waste any time putting the @POTUS Twitter account into action. Trump gained access to the account after taking the oath of office Friday, and used it shortly afterward to tweet a link to the text of his inaugural address.
The @POTUS account, along with a number of other social media accounts created under the Obama administration, were peacefully transferred to the Trump administration in the first such social handover of its kind. To carry out the transition, Twitter added a “44” to the end of the Obama administration's accounts, and spawned new @POTUS, @FLOTUS, @VP, @WhiteHouse and @PressSec accounts, duplicating their followers.
Twitter says the Trump administration's accounts will retain all the Obama administration's accounts followers. But the migration process takes some time. As of this writing, the new @POTUS account has around 7 million followers, while @POTUS44 has 14 million.
A prolific tweeter, Trump hasn't discarded his @realDonaldTrump account. He's tweeted 10 times from it as president. Meanwhile, he posted just single tweet from @POTUS. Prior to taking office, Trump regularly tweeted criticism of the media, political opponents, and public figures who took stands against him. Whether he continues this pattern will be a main point of intrigue in the early days of his administration that promises to contain plenty.
As for Barack Obama? He's back on Twitter using his old @BarackObama handle with its 80 million followers.
The transition of presidential Twitter accounts was not an entirely seamless one. Early in the day the background photo featured on Trump's @POTUS account was a Getty shot of Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration. It was not a vestige of the Obama-era account, and was replaced later in the day.
And, for a short time, Vice President Mike Pence's tweets from @VP were protected.
All the issues now appear to have been resolved, and the peaceful transition of social media power is complete.
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