President Barack Obama is now a civilian—and nothing symbolizes that more in this digital age than his new Twitter handle. Or old handle —depending on how you look at it.
Hours after taking off from Andrews Air Force Base, the former president sent his first tweet from @BarackObama — his pre-White House handle— after having to hand over @POTUS to the Trump administration.
“Hi everybody!” he tweeted. “Back to the original handle. Is this thing still on? Michelle and I are off on a quick vacation, then we’ll get back to work.”
It was a surprisingly light tone, considering that most of us are still in the midst of mourning the end of his term. But he also made sure to point us towards the new Obama Foundation, which will be a big part of his focus in this next chapter in his life.
Michelle also sent out a tweet from her @MichelleObama account (Melania Trump has yet to send out anything from @FLOTUS):
“After an extraordinary 8 years, I’ll be taking a little break. Will be back before you know it to work with you on the issues we care about,” she said, alongside a photo of her hugging a child.
We still can’t believe this real. But we hope this means they can at least live-tweet award shows with the rest of us!