There’s been much speculation online as to whether President-elect Donald Trump would abandon his personal Twitter handle (@realDonaldTrump) in exchange for the Twitter handle designated for the President of the United States (@POTUS) once he officially takes office. CNBC reports that Trump will be keeping his personal Twitter even after Jan. 20.
In a recent interview with the Times Of London, Trump discussed that his personal page has more followers and a greater reach than that of the @POTUS Twitter handle, and the formula of tweeting various unfiltered remarks from the @realDonaldTrump handle is “working.”
“When you think that you’re 46 million there, I’d rather just let that build up and just keep it @realDonaldTrump, it’s working,” he said. @realDonaldTrump actually has 20 million followers, and the @POTUS page, which became active in 2015 under the administration of current President Barack Obama, has 13.5 million.
Trump has come under fire numerous times for tweets he’s sent out through his personal page, including recent remarks about civil rights activist John Lewis, “fake news” organizations spreading lies and his thoughts regarding the possibility that the DNC may have been hacked during the 2016 presidential election.
“I thought I’d do less of it [tweeting], 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…,” Trump continued. “…and they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out — this morning on television, Fox, ‘Donald Trump, we have breaking news.'”