The President of the United States of America is on Twitter, finally, with his own verified account @POTUS. On Monday, the White House tweeted a short video of Obama sending his tweet from the Oval Office, perched on the edge of the historic Resolute presidential desk.

Watch President Obama send his first tweet from @POTUS. #FollowTheTweets https://t.co/N8JxY8kQIE

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 18, 2015

 

Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account.

— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015

 

He used a White House iPhone to send the tweet, not his own high-security custom Blackberry. "I can't use phones with recorders in them," he explained on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" earlier this year.

It's not the first time Obama has tweeted. He has occasionally signed tweets from the @WhiteHouse account with his initials, "-bo" and also has used @BarackObama, which is an account run by Organizing for Action, Obama's former campaign team.

Bill Clinton tweeted to welcome Obama with a cheeky question for a 'friend'.

Welcome to @Twitter, @POTUS! One question: Does that username stay with the office? #askingforafriend

— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) May 18, 2015

 

It will. When his time in office is done, the @POTUS handle will be available for future presidents to use, the White House said.

At the time of publishing, he already had 949,464 followers and he had been on Twitter less than five hours. His biography on the social media site reads: Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States.

One helluva bio there, Mr. President!

 

(With inputs from Reuters)

Feature image source: Twitter