President Barack Obama has finally got his own personal Twitter account after six years in office.
The leader of the free world used the verified handle @POTUS to announce his arrival on the social media network.
He wrote: “Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.”
In his profile, he described himself as: “Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States.”
The 65 people he was following included his wife First Lady Michelle Obama, who tweets under the @FLOTUS account, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, predecessors George Bush Snr and Bill Clinton – but not yet presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
Responding to Mr Obama’s inaugural tweet, Mr Clinton posted: “Welcome to @Twitter, @POTUS! One question; Does that username stay with the office? #askingforafriend.”
And Mr Obama tweeted back: “Good question, @billclinton. The handle comes with the house. Know anyone interested in @FLOTUS?”
There is already an account in the name of Barack Obama run by his staff, with any tweets he has written signed “bo”.
In less than an hour after his first post, it had been retweeted 55,000 times and received 59,000 favourites.
The President had also garnered 274,000 followers, with that number growing rapidly.
