“Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account,” President Obama tweeted at 12:38 p.m. to announce his decision to join the social media network.
Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) May 18, 2015
The president has two official accounts, but the White House communications office controls them. Now, presumably, the president himself will be able to say what’s on his mind from @POTUS.
He hasn’t said more since arriving in Camden, N.J. to extoll the city’s innovative community policing program. But by Monday afternoon, he had nearly 1 million followers.
In Camden today, seeing first-hand how smart policing is making the community safer while building trust. pic.twitter.com/3MiWk43c8g
— President Obama (@POTUS44) May 18, 2015
Obama was only following 65 people and entities, mostly federal agencies and some of the leaders of those agencies. Noticeably absent was his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who is running for president in 2016. Obama hasn’t followed any of the candidates for president, Republican or Democrat.
Obama is also following former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He isn’t following George W. Bush or Jimmy Carter because they don’t use Twitter and can’t be followed.
Obama’s Twitter announcement was greeted with responses like this:
“@POTUS Welcome back! 1) Pardon #EdSnowdon as you leave office and close Gitmo please?? OH! And reign in the damn NSA, we hate them. Peace.” That tweet came from Anne Grauso, a former model and ex-wife of one-time Vera Wang President Mario Grauso, who describes herself as a “filmmaker/photographer/philanthrapist clumsy redhead/valid passport/no priors.”
