President Obama joined Twitter on Monday, vowing to use his @POTUS account as a vehicle to communicate more directly with the American people.
Unlike other leading White House figures — including Vice President Joseph R. Biden, first lady Michelle Obama and others — the president lacked his own Twitter account and instead relied on tweets from @WhiteHouse to deliver his message.
That changed on Monday with a brief tweet.
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“Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really!” he said in the tweet. “Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.”
White House officials say the @POTUS account will make the administration more open and transparent.
“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,” reads a blog post on WhiteHouse.gov. “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.”
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