Trump takes over @POTUS Twitter handle

WASHINGTON — Mr Donald Trump took over as the 45th United States president on Friday (Jan 20) and in doing so, inherited the White House Twitter account from outgoing leader Barack Obama.

In the first “social media transition” at the White House, Mr Trump became the owner of the Twitter handle @POTUS, which represents the president of the United States.

The transition on Twitter got off to a bumpy start, with an image from Mr Obama’s 2009 inauguration briefly on the account, before being fixed minutes later.

The White House last year indicated it would hand over to Mr Obama’s successor control of the account and other social media platforms which were launched during his eight-year tenure.

Mr Obama, meanwhile, assumed a new Twitter handle @POTUS44, keeping some 13.9 million followers.

Tweets generated during the Obama administration have been archived and moved to separate accounts marked with “44” or “Obama” in the name.

The same goes for White House accounts on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms.

Incoming first lady Melania Trump took over the @FLOTUS handle and Michelle Obama shifted to @FLOTUS44.

The accounts of both the president and first lady started with a clean slate with no tweets from their predecessors.

Mr Trump quickly garnered some 4.3 million followers for the new Twitter handle in the first hour.

But he continued tweeting from his old @realDonaldTrump account, which has more than 20 million followers.

“The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” Mr Trump said in one of his tweets on Friday.

“From this moment on, it’s going to be #AmericaFirst.”

It was not immediately clear how Mr Trump was managing his account or if his staff were tweeting for him. AGENCIES