“Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account,”
He has always been on Twitter, or so we thought, with the bio on the @barackobama twitter handle, “…tweets from the President are signed BO.” However, @potus (acronym for President Of The USA) is a more personal handle that will be passed on to future Presidents.
Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.
— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
In a blog post published by the White House, the account will serve as a new way for Obama to engage directly with the American people, with tweets coming exclusively from him.
“President Obama is committed to making his Administration the most open and participatory in history, and @POTUS will give Americans a new venue to engage on the issues that matter most to them,” the blog said.
The handle has already been verified by Twitter, has tweeted 3 times; its first tweet quoted above gathering over 200,000 retweets and over 300,000 favorites. He follows only 65 people including former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, some white house staff, Columbia and Harvard universities, and the sports teams he supports from Chicago.
His third tweet, in reply to a tweet from @billclinton asking if the @potus handle stays with the office with hashtag #askingforafriend; a subliminal message referring to Hilary Clinton on the heels of her declaration to run for President in 2016, to which Obama replied; “Good question, @billclinton, the handle comes with the house. Know anyone interested in @FLOTUS?”
Good question, @billclinton. The handle comes with the house. Know anyone interested in @FLOTUS?
— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
He sure has a good sense of humour. Let’s see how much of the presidential 140 characteristics we enjoy before he passes the handle on.
