--- title: President Obama Gets His Own Twitter Account description: Commander in Chief now commands his own tweets canonical: https://time.com/3882715/president-obama-now-has-his-own-twitter-account/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-18T16:01:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:15.147Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Joins Twitter — Again og:description: He set up his third account, but this time it's personal. og:url: https://time.com/3882715/president-obama-now-has-his-own-twitter-account/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Joins Twitter — Again twitter:description: He set up his third account, but this time it's personal. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # President Obama Now Has His Own Twitter Account > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Know Right Now: Obama is Banning Distribution of Some Military-Style Equipment to Police [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Obama is Banning Distribution of Some Military-Style Equipment to Police](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Olw2brkV.m3u8) (1:02)  _Published 2015-05-18. Know Right Now: Obama is Banning Distribution of Some Military-Style Equipment to Police_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 18, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 18, 2015 4:01 PM UTC Two Twitter accounts weren’t enough for President Obama. On Monday, he signed up for a third. Though Obama has been an avid user of social media — and by one study is [the most followed world leader](http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/04/28/world/europe/ap-eu-twitter-diplomacy.html) on Twitter — his other accounts @WhiteHouse and @BarackObama are controlled by the Administration and Organizing for Action, the nonprofit that succeeded his presidential-campaign arm. The new account, [@POTUS](https://twitter.com/potus), looks like more of a personal account, perhaps to allow him to continue running it after he leaves the White House. > [](https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/600324682190053376) The account rapidly added followers, going from zero to almost 100,000 in less than half an hour and growing by the minute. Obama made some interesting choices setting up the account. The short bio reads: “Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States.” And the header photo at the top of his account page is a picture with his family crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the anniversary of the iconic civil rights march in Selma, Ala., in March. The White House says the new account is a way for the President to engage directly with the American people. “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,” wrote a White House blogger announcing the account. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3882715/president-obama-now-has-his-own-twitter-account/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3882715/president-obama-now-has-his-own-twitter-account/"},"headline":"President Obama Now Has His Own Twitter Account","datePublished":"2015-05-18T16:01:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:15.147Z","description":"President Obama gets his own Twitter account","url":"https://time.com/3882715/president-obama-now-has-his-own-twitter-account/","keywords":["Social Media","Barack Obama","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3882715/president-obama-now-has-his-own-twitter-account/","name":"President Obama Now Has His Own Twitter Account"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Obama is Banning Distribution of Some Military-Style Equipment to Police","description":"Know Right Now: Obama is Banning Distribution of Some Military-Style Equipment to Police","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Olw2brkV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-18T15:43:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Olw2brkV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3882715/president-obama-now-has-his-own-twitter-account/","duration":"PT1M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3882715/president-obama-now-has-his-own-twitter-account/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```