President Donald Trump loves Twitter. And, as we know, he loves doing things his way.
He did, after all, have his first dance as commander in chief with first lady Melania to the Frank Sinatra classic “My Way” at the Liberty Ball Friday night following his inauguration. While Trump had to trade in his trusty old Android from which he’s been tweeting — to the tune of more than 34,000 tweets since joining the social media site in March 2009 — for a more-secure, Secret Service-permitted gadget, will we see him also give up his beloved @realDonaldTrump account? If his staffers have their way, yes.
The New York Times reported that Trump is being urged to forgo the account that has 21.1 million followers and use the official @POTUS handle created — and controlled — by his predecessor Barack Obama’s team, which has since been cleared and transferred to Trump. (Obama’s Twitter archive can be found under @POTUS44.) Since the start of his inauguration weekend, Trump’s personal account has tweeted 14 times. The @POTUS account? Just six, a chaste amount by Trump’s previous standards.
Could the fact that the official account has 7 million less followers have anything to do with Trump’s reluctance? Perhaps, but there’s one person who might be very happy if Trump has to give up or scale back on doing his own tweeting now that he occupies the Oval Office. Melania Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last April that she has repeatedly told her husband to stop going on Twitter — especially after midnight. “If only he would listen,” she said.