President Gets His Own Twitter Account: 'It's Barack. Really'

"Hello Twitter! It's Barack. Really." And with that, President Obama became part of the Twitterverse. The White House announced Monday that @POTUS would be "the official Twitter account of the President of the United States."

According to a post on The White House Blog:

"The @POTUS Twitter account will serve as a new way for President 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."

And clearly President Obama is having some fun with his new account (toy?) responding to a question from former President Clinton:

Obama has not been entirely absent from Twitter. The White House has been tweeting under @BarackObama, an account run by Organizing for Action, an outgrowth of the president's campaign. Obama's own tweets from that account were signed "-- bo."

Obama's new Twitter account, verified of course, so far lists 65 people and institutions he's following. It's heavy on Chicago sports teams, (Blackhawks, White Sox, Bears and Bulls), Cabinet officers and executive agencies.

He's also following the three colleges and universities he attended: Columbia, Harvard and Occidental.

No celebrities, or journalists for that matter, have made the list yet.

Obama's bio on @POTUS says he is "Dad, husband and 44th President of the United States."

Left unclear is whether "re-tweets are not endorsements."

Several of his tweeting friends welcomed the president, including Vice President Joe Biden.

And adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.