Transparency or confusion: Trump admin's X engagement outpaces Biden's – USA Today
If Barack Obama was the first president to use social media as a communications strategy, and Joe Biden was able to widen its scope, President Donald Trump has completely remade the approach in his own image.
According to a new Pew Research Center analysis, public engagement with federal agencies’ official X accounts during the second Trump administration has significantly outpaced the end of Biden’s tenure.
The White House has said that its unprecedented social media strategy reflects a level of transparency never seen before and highlights the Trump administration’s myriad accomplishments. Critics argue that the wanton use of such a powerful tool at best, betrays the dignity of the office and, at worst, spreads confusion and misinformation during times of national anxiety.
“The Trump administration’s use of X is a prime example of bypassing the traditional news media to communicate directly with the public,” Natalie Stroud, director and Knight faculty fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Media Engagement, told USA TODAY. “It certainly can be effective at gaining attention from the public and the media.”
Here’s what you should know about public engagement with executive agency X accounts.
In its analysis, Pew examined 24 executive agency X accounts. On average, 22 of them received more likes and reposts during the first year of the second Trump administration than the final year of Biden’s tenure.
The official White House account received an average of 8,614 likes and reposts per post from Trump’s team last year, compared with an average of 2,112 during Biden’s final year in office.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has enjoyed an outsized role in Trump’s second term, received an average of 1,950 likes and reposts per post, while the agency during Biden’s final year received an average of 25.
Previously innocuous accounts like the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor are also outperforming under the Trump administration with an average like and repost rate of 2,268 to 57, and 2,152 to 16, respectively.
Across all 24 executive agency X accounts that Pew looked at, the Trump administration’s engagement includes an average of 929 likes and reposts per post. The Biden administration sat at 197.
According to Pew, the majority of the accounts surveyed post either as often or even less frequently under Trump than they did Biden. Some, however, are posting “much more,” including the White House, DHS and ICE, all of which are sharing content at more than double the rate of Biden’s team.
The only two accounts under Biden that outperformed Trump, Pew Research Center told USA TODAY in an email, were the Department of Transportation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Pew added that those accounts have posted less frequently under Trump, and when they do, they get fewer likes and reposts.
Assistant White House Press Secretary Olivia Wales told USA TODAY that the “success” of the administration’s social media strategy “speaks for itself.”
“Through engaging posts and banger memes, the Trump administration is successfully communicating the President’s extremely popular agenda and driving record engagement,” Wales said. “The entire administration will continue to share President Trump’s wins directly to the American people with unprecedented reach and success.”
According to the most recent Economist/YouGov poll, Trump’s approval rating currently sits at record lows, with 61% of Americans saying they disapprove of how he’s handled his job as president, USA TODAY previously reported. Since the start of the Iran war, Republicans’ views of Trump’s economy, specifically, has dipped from 78% to 63%, according to a recently released Associated Press-NORC poll.
Pew included the percentage of posts that contained certain words during Biden’s final year and Trump’s first year of his second term, revealing a marked “shift in messaging” under the current administration.
Across all of the accounts, the words “president” and “American(s)” now appear with greater frequency.
Likewise, there is a whole list of words that had never been used under Biden, but which are used with some regularity under Trump. Among them, ICE used the word “alien(s)” in a staggering 43% of its posts last year.
Other departments using new language include:
Department of Energy
Labor Department
Commerce Department
“Several of the words analyzed in the Pew report are attention-grabbing (e.g. ‘dominance,’ ‘alien’) and these sorts of words likely contribute to increased engagement and algorithmic amplification,” said Stroud of UT Austin.
Pew also compared the frequency of words that both administrations used.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Department of Energy
AI: 10% Trump vs. 2% Biden
Labor Department
The Trump administration’s most prolific executive agency X account, in terms of engagement, also happens to have gone dormant alongside the agency that supported it – DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, which was led by X owner Elon Musk. That account received nearly 29,000 likes and reposts on average, tripling that of the average White House post, which comes in second, Pew reports.
“DOGE, like many other federal agencies under the Trump administration, uses extremely inflammatory language, frequently attacking perceived opponents,” Dr. Rebekah Tromble, professor and director of global partnerships at Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet & Democracy, told USA TODAY. “Research shows that social media algorithms prioritize content that is likely to upset people. If it makes someone angry, either because they agree or disagree, they’re more likely to engage with the content.”
However, the most prolific account in terms of posting is another that was created specifically for the Trump administration, dubbed RapidResponse47. With an average of nearly 40 posts per day, the account is tasked with, much like its name implies, responding to other accounts and daily administration news in real time. Next to the White House, RapidResponse is the third-most engaged with account, boasting an average of 3,400 likes and reposts per post.
Ethan Porter, an associate professor at George Washington University’s Department of Political Science and co-director of its Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics, told USA TODAY that a politician’s effectiveness on platforms like X largely depends on the administration’s goals
“If the administration just wants to stir the pot and direct the conversation, then yes, absolutely, posting to X is effective,” Porter said. “But if they actually want to win people over to their side, either in DC or elsewhere, I don’t think they’re likely to succeed. The administration can use X to set the agenda –– but I have trouble believing they can use it to persuade.”
Meanwhile, the authenticity of social media demands a “trade-off,” Porter said, meaning attempts to govern what’s posted on official channels could diminish engagement.
“In one respect, it would obviously be better if government social media had to be non-partisan and informative, rather than partisan, provocative and not especially committed to disseminating correct information,” Porter said. “But in another respect, I fear that such an approach to social media would be roundly ignored by everyday people.”
Tromble said that engagement with the Trump administration’s X accounts should not be used as a barometer for public opinion. She pointed to the White House’s recent use of the word “mogged,” a slang term for “dominated,” which speaks to X’s more “chronically online” crowd.
“Federal agencies under the Trump administration are communicating in a way that doesn’t resonate with most Americans, who overwhelmingly reject vitriol and disinformation in politics,” Tromble said. “This isn’t an attempt to connect with or inform average Americans. Instead, it’s aimed at a narrow segment of people who get a kick out of online trolling.”
According to the experts USA TODAY spoke with, the Trump administration’s use of X is, at best, partisan fodder that plays to a segment of the Make America Great Again base. At worst, it disseminates misinformation and spreads confusion during times of national anxiety.
One of the more high-profile fumbles from official X accounts includes FBI Director Kash Patel’s announcement that the person responsible for assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk had been arrested, only for him to backtrack hours later and say that the individual had been released.
The Department of Homeland Security’s description of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both of whom were killed by federal officers in Minnesota during anti-ICE protests, also failed to reflect the reality on the ground.
In the case of Pretti, DHS’ post is still up, with nearly 40 million views, 54,000 likes and 17,000 reposts.
Most recently, Trump has repeatedly claimed on social media that an end to the war in Iran is imminent. Invariably, however, those comments are undercut by leadership in Tehran and are yet to materialize.
“There may be some who regard government posts on X as definitive and authoritative –– as statements of policy with clear consequences. And indeed, in a prior administration, that may have been the case,” said Porter of George Washington University. “But that’s not true here. My guess is that some users are looking at government posts to X as serious statements of policy. Many others, of course, already know that’s not the case.”
Drew Pittock covers national trending news for USA TODAY. He can be reached at DPittock@usatodayco.com.
