Government Twitter accounts have slowed since Trump took office
President Donald Trump took office on Friday. Since then, Twitter accounts for cabinet-level agencies have been quiet — or in some cases — mute.
Of the 15 cabinet Twitter accounts, three haven't tweeted since Trump became commander in chief. Another five have tweeted five or fewer times since inauguration day. Only three accounts have tweeted into the double digits.
Those levels are slim compared to the social media clip at which agencies tweeted under former President Obama. In the two weeks before Trump took office, most of the accounts were posting several times a day.
Trump, known for using his personal Twitter account to rip into his political opponents, dealt a swift rebuke to the National Park Service last week after it retweeted posts critical of him, most notably now comparing his inauguration crowd size to Obama's first inauguration in 2009. After the retweets, all Department of Interior bureaus were told stop using agency Twitter accounts, Gizmodo reported. The @NatlParkService account later issued an apology and has been tweeting non-controversial posts ever since.
However, not all park service accounts fell in line after Trump's crackdown. On Tuesday afternoon, the Badlands National Park Twitter account sent three tweets warning of the dangers of climate change, which Trump has called a hoax. The tweets were deleted late Tuesday.
The three silent agencies have been the departments of treasury, agriculture and transportation. The trio combined tweeted more than 100 times in the two weeks before the inauguration.
The Environmental Protection Agency, not a cabinet department, also hasn't tweeted. Trump has banned EPA staff issuing giving press releases, making blog posts or operating the agency's social media accounts. Trump also has ordered a "temporary suspension" of all new business activities at the agency.
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Agencies such as Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Energy, while still tweeting, have seen considerable slowdowns. For instance, Department of Education's account has tweeted only four times since Friday. In the final two weeks of the Obama administration, the agency tweeted about 150 times. The Senate has not yet confirmed Trump's Cabinet nominees for any of these agencies.
Other agencies are about on par with their pre-Trump tweet levels. The Department of Veterans Affairs has tweeted nearly 50 times since Friday, in line with about 180 times it tweeted in the preceding two weeks. The Department of Defense has tweeted 38 times, on pace with the 142 tweets it sent in Obama's final two weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.