by Amna El Tawil
President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t plan to stop using his personal Twitter account in favor of POTUS profile. In an interview with the Times of London, he said: “@realDonaldTrump I think, I’ll keep it. I’ve got 46 million people right now — that’s a lot, that’s really a lot — but 46 million — including Facebook, Twitter and ya know, Instagram, so when you think that you’re 46 million there, I’d rather just let that build up and just keep it @realDonaldTrump.”
However, the incoming president admitted that he considered toning down his social media presence, but gave up because “it’s working”. Trump confessed: “I thought I’d do less of it, but I’m covered so dishonestly by the press — so dishonestly — that I can put out Twitter — and it’s not 140, it’s now 280 — I can go bing bing bing . . . and they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out — this morning on television, Fox — ‘Donald Trump, we have breaking news.”
It’s not clear what the President-elect meant by “it’s not 140, it’s now 280” – it may be a reference to changes that Twitter is making to its character limit, or to the fact that he will have control of the Presidential Twitter account as well. Mr. Trump’s team will gain control of that account after the inauguration, on 20 January.
The Independent reports that Trump will most likely use both profiles. It’s assumed that his private account will be managed by him, while his team will run the @POTUS profile.
Donald Trump’s private account (@realDonaldTrump) has 20 million followers while @POTUS profile has 13.5 million followers.
However, Trump’s Twitter account isn’t most-followed presidential account because Barack Obama’s personal profile (@BarackObama) has 80.6 million followers.
(Photo credit: Screenshot/Twitter)