Donald Trump may not be ready to concede to Joe Biden, but Twitter is.
Deadline received an email from Twitter spokesperson Nick Pacilio that claimed the site is "actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021." This means government accounts like @VP, @FLOTUS, and @whitehouse will be handed over to the Joe Biden administration following the inauguration.
Twitter will need to forcefully remove Trump and his team from the handles if the president doesn't accept his defeat, and so far, it seems like things are trending that way. Trump has disputed the results of the election since before the official count was submitted. He's also effectively shut out Biden's transition team from working with White House officials. This has hindered Biden from receiving information needed to address immediate issues like the economy and the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump uses Twitter to galvanize his intense following. He normally uses his @realDonaldTrump account—which has 88 million followers compared to the @POTUS account's 32 million—to broadcast his opinions. Twitter's announcement also follows Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz blasting Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for the social media site's perceived partisanship.
