Donald Trump comes to power, in the White House and online

Minutes after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, the changing of the guard could be chronicled through social media.

The presidential @POTUS handle was taken over by Trump in a slightly less than smooth transition.

Some people who logged on to his Twitter account found headlines that appeared in Russian Cyrillic letters.

Whether a hack or just a momentary glitch – the account at last count had 10.4 million followers. But the number is expected to approach the 14 million followers of Barack Obama, who will soon be tweeting as
@POTUS44 .

Those following the succession on the official inaugural committee account saw a banner photo of the crowd that appeared to be a stock picture taken at Barack Obama’s far more highly attended 2009 inaugural ceremony.

That same picture was removed from the POTUS account about an hour after Trump took the oath of office.

On behalf of my entire family, THANK YOU! #InaugurationDay pic.twitter.com/v2nEMoanIX

— President Trump (@POTUS) January 20, 2017

Yet Trump still insists on holding on to his iconic pre-presidential Twitter account, despite pleas to give it up.

While @RealDonaldTrump featured excerpts from his inaugural speech, not all of the posted comments have been favourable.

Reports deleted

The first day of the Trump era may also be noted by deletions.

Gone is the page on the Department of Labor website featuring its report on lesbians, bisexuals, gays and transsexuals in the workplace.

And missing from the official White House site is Obama’s explanation of the threat of climate change, which Trump says is either a Chinese hoax or just weather.

We are still awaiting the musings of Melania Trump, who’s taken over Michelle Obama’s handle @FLOTUS.

Though her site has 4.15 million followers, the new First Lady has yet to send anything.