President Barack Obama now has something the rest of us take for granted – his own Twitter account.
On Monday, the President announced his arrival on Twitter with the tweet:
Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.
— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
Yes, there is @BarackObama, a converted campaign account that the President occasionally tweeted on, using his initials to indicate it was a personal tweet, The Washington Post reported.
But now, with his own Twitter, Obama will engage directly with the American people, the White House said in a statement. His profile reads “Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States” and includes a warning that tweets may be archived.
So who’s he following? About 65 accounts so far, including Secretary of State John Kerry, the secretaries of education, commerce, transportation and energy, plus universities he attended like Harvard and, of course, the Chicago Bulls, Bears, White Sox and Blackhawks.
By late Monday morning, he’d already amassed about 770,000 followers. Only one tweet so far, but lots of responses, including this one from First Lady Michelle Obama (who tweets under @FLOTUS):
It’s about time, @POTUS! –mo
— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 18, 2015
Check out the President’s Twitter here.
