Policy, not personal insults: Biden uses Twitter to sell his agenda, with a few pooch pics thrown in
Joe Biden had been the nation’s 46th president for just 36 minutes when he made use of a powerful presidential tool newly at his disposal.
He tweeted from the @POTUS account on Twitter.
“There is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face,” Biden tweeted minutes after wrapping up his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20. “That’s why today, I am heading to the Oval Office to get right to work delivering bold action and immediate relief for American families.”
The tweet, meant to reassure a nation still in the midst of a deadly pandemic, was markedly different in style, tone and content from the incendiary and often untrue messages that got his predecessor, Donald Trump, banned indefinitely from the platform just two weeks earlier.
Trump often used Twitter to hurl insults, settle scores and promote baseless conspiracy theories. In the first month of his presidency, Biden has used the popular digital platform primarily to promote his policies and his political philosophy.
“Wear a mask. Save lives,” he tweeted on Jan. 29.
“We are stronger when we welcome immigrants — not shut them out,” he wrote fourdays later.
And on Feb. 9: “Now is the time for a big, bold COVID relief package that will change the course of the pandemic and jumpstart our economy.”
Biden’s approach to Twitter shows “a very traditional understanding of the role of social media,” said Brian Ott, who heads the communications department at Missouri State University. “He sees it as a PR tool.”
Biden’s Twitter feed also reflects the return to a more traditional style of governing — a significant departure from Trump’s undisciplined approach to the job. Gone are the days when Twitter was the vehicle for Trump to make foreign policy pronouncements, roll out domestic programs and even fire staffers. Rex Tillerson reportedly learned that he was getting dumped as secretary of state when Trump announced his firing on Twitter.
A White House official familiar with Biden’s digital communications strategy said social media affords the president an opportunity to have a conversation with Americans about policies and initiatives that can directly impact their lives.
“There are things the government will have to communicate with people to make their lives better,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s an important communications tool for those reasons.”
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Transfer of power
Twitter switched the official @POTUS account from Trump to Biden in January as part of the transfer of power to the new administration. One thing Biden did not inherit: Trump’s millions of followers. Twitter set the number of followers back to zero when Biden took over the account.
In just four weeks, however, Biden has amassed 7.7 million followers. Biden also maintains his personal Twitter account (@JoeBiden), which has more than 28 million followers but has been mostly dormant since he took office. As president, Biden has used the personal account simply as a vehicle for retweeting his posts from the official government @POTUS handle.
Biden has tweeted more than 160 times from @POTUS, which carries the label “US government account.” More than three dozen of his tweets have been about strengthening the economy, while another two dozen have been related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If we don’t take action, we won’t return to full employment until 2025,” he wrote on Feb. 11, adding that “full employment” will return next year if Congress passes his $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package.
“When I took office three weeks ago, America didn’t have a plan or enough supplies to vaccinate most of the country,” he tweeted a couple of hours later. “But my team got right to work, and as of today, we’ve increased weekly vaccine shipments by nearly 30% and purchased enough vaccines to vaccinate all Americans.”
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Hank Aaron and legendary actress Cicely Tyson, to congratulate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on last week’s Super Bowl victory, and to laud Cabinet members like Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg upon their confirmation by the Senate.
A handful of his tweets have been of a more personal nature.
On Jan. 25, five days after taking office, he retweeted a message from first lady Jill Biden with photos of the family pooches at play on the South Lawn. “Champ and Major have joined us in the White House!” the caption read.
When a snowstorm blanketed Washington on Jan. 31, Biden tweeted a photo of himself walking along the White House colonnade, apparently heading to the Oval Office, with the snow-covered Rose Garden in the foreground. “Grateful for the short commute on days like these,” he wrote.
On Valentine’s Day, Biden tweeted a photo of him embracing the first lady and included the message: “The love of my life and the life of my love. Happy Valentine’s Day, Jilly.”
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