Twitter to hand @POTUS account to Biden on inauguration day, even if Trump does not concede

The social media company said it is preparing to support the transition of White House Twitter accounts including @FLOTUS and @VP

But the president mostly uses his private account, @realDonaldTrump, which has 88 million followers, dwarfing the 32 million @POTUS followers

Reading Time:2 minutes

Published: 4:39pm, 21 Nov 2020Updated: 10:03pm, 21 Nov 2020

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Nancy Scola on politico.com on November 20, 2020.

The presidential @POTUS Twitter handle will automatically transfer to Joe Biden the moment he is sworn in as president of the United States at noon on Inauguration Day – whether President Donald Trump has conceded, the company confirmed to POLITICO on Friday.

Same goes for @whitehouse, @VP, @FLOTUS, and a handful other official accounts associated with the presidency.

“Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021,” Twitter spokesman Nick Pacilio said.

“As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration.”

The handover requires no sharing of information between the outgoing Trump team and incoming Biden team, according to the company. All existing tweets on those accounts will be archived and Twitter will transfer the accounts – reset to zero tweets – to the Biden White House that day.