---
title: "Federal agency X accounts are getting far more engagement in the second Trump term than under Biden"
description: "Federal agencies are getting far more audience engagement on X in the second Trump administration than they did during the final year of the Biden administration."
date: "2026-06-01"
authors:
  - name: "Anna Lieb"
    job_title: "Computational Social Science Assistant"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/anna-lieb/"
  - name: "Aaron Smith"
    job_title: "Director, Data Labs"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/aaron-smith/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/06/01/federal-agency-x-accounts-are-getting-far-more-engagement-in-the-second-trump-term-than-under-biden/"
categories:
  - "Federal Government"
  - "Platforms & Services"
  - "Twitter (X)"
---

# Federal agency X accounts are getting far more engagement in the second Trump term than under Biden

![(Pew Research Center illustration; Getty Images)](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/SR_26.06.01_gov-x-accounts_featured.png?w=640)

Federal agencies are getting far more audience engagement on X (formerly Twitter) in the second Trump administration than they did during the final year of the Biden administration, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. The study comes amid coverage of [the content some agencies are sharing](https://www.npr.org/2026/02/16/nx-s1-5704347/extremist-racist-messaging-trump) on social media and their broader [messaging strategies](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/style/trump-officials-social-media.html).

### Federal agencies are getting far more X engagement under Trump than Biden

*Median combined likes and reposts per post on U.S. government X accounts during the ___ administration*

| Account | Biden | Biden chart only | Trump |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| All accounts (avg) | 197 | 197 | 929 |
| @DHSgov | 57 | 57 | 2268 |
| @ICEgov | 25 | 40 | 1950 |
| @USDOL | 16 | 50 | 2152 |
| @WhiteHouse | 2112 | 2112 | 8614 |

Source: Analysis of X posts from first year of the second Trump administration and last year of the Biden administration for 30 U.S. government accounts (27 operated by Cabinet-level agencies and subagencies, plus @DOGE, @WhiteHouse and @RapidResponse47) collected Feb. 11-18, 2026. “All accounts” figures are based on 24 accounts for which year-over-year data is available.

All but two of the 24 executive agency X accounts with available year-over-year data received more likes and reposts, on average, in the first year of the Trump administration than in the final year of the Biden administration. Posts from some agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor, routinely get thousands of likes after receiving minimal X engagement in the past.

Most of the accounts we analyzed post about as often or somewhat less frequently than they did in the final year of the Biden administration. But a handful are posting much more. The White House, DHS, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement accounts now post more than twice as often as they did during the Biden administration.

**About this research**

This Pew Research Center analysis compares how federal agencies used X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) in the first year of the second Trump administration and the last year of the Biden administration. It examines how often these accounts posted, how much engagement they received and how the language in their posts changed.

#### Why did we do this?

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, the media and decision-makers understand important topics. This research is part of our longstanding work on how [the U.S. public](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/), as well as [lawmakers](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/31/house-freedom-caucus-on-twitter-going-negative-and-getting-attention/) and [other public figures](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/11/18/americas-news-influencers/), use social media.

Learn more [about Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/about/) and our work on [social media](https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/internet-technology/platforms-services/social-media/).

#### How did we do this?

This analysis includes [30 X accounts in total](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/SR_26.06.01_gov-x-accounts_list.pdf): 27 operated by the [current administration’s Cabinet-level agencies](https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet/) and a selection of subagencies, plus accounts operated by the Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE), the White House (@WhiteHouse) and the official White House “rapid response” team (@RapidResponse47).

For each of these accounts, we attempted to collect posts from the last year of the Biden administration (Jan. 20, 2024-Jan. 19, 2025) and the first year of the second Trump administration (Jan. 20, 2025-Jan. 20, 2026). We used a third-party web scraping service to collect available post text, likes and reposts for each account, accessed Feb. 11-18, 2026.

Year-over-year comparisons are available for 24 of the 30 accounts. The @DOGE and @RapidResponse47 accounts did not exist prior to the second Trump administration, and Biden-era posts were unavailable for four additional accounts: those belonging to Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Defense/Department of War, the Justice Department and the U.S. Trade Representative.

We collected State Department post data shortly before it removed posts made during previous administrations.

#### Trump administration’s X posts differ in content from those of the Biden era

### How the language of federal agency X posts changed from Biden’s administration to Trump’s

*% of U.S. government posts on X from the ___ administration that mention ...*

| Term | Account | Biden | Trump | Difference |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| American(s) | All accounts | 6 | 14 | 8 |
| president | All accounts | 6 | 16 | 10 |
| criminal(s) | @ICEgov | 7 | 40 | 33 |
| arrest(ed) | @ICEgov | 11 | 42 | 31 |
| alien(s) | @ICEgov | 0 | 43 | 43 |
| illegal | @ICEgov | 1 | 24 | 23 |
| officer(s) | @ICEgov | 5 | 16 | 11 |
| violent | @ICEgov | 1 | 6 | 5 |
| dominance | @ENERGY | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| AI | @ENERGY | 2 | 10 | 8 |
| secure | @ENERGY | 1 | 10 | 9 |
| prices | @ENERGY | 0 | 9 | 9 |
| coal | @ENERGY | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| unleashing | @ENERGY | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| skilled | @USDOL | 0 | 13 | 13 |
| nation | @USDOL | 2 | 12 | 10 |
| born | @USDOL | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| patriot(s) | @USDOL | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| hardworking | @USDOL | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| manufacturing | @CommerceGov | 4 | 13 | 9 |
| deal(s) | @CommerceGov | 0 | 13 | 13 |
| tariff(s) | @CommerceGov | 0 | 10 | 10 |

Note: Includes a selection of terms with the largest change in usage.

Source: Analysis of X posts from last year of the Biden administration and first year of the second Trump administration for 30 U.S. government accounts (27 operated by Cabinet-level agencies and subagencies, plus @DOGE, @WhiteHouse and @RapidResponse47) collected Feb. 11-18, 2026. “All accounts” figures are based on 24 accounts for which year-over-year data is available.

The language that federal agencies use on X has also changed since the Biden administration, reflecting a shift in messaging under President Donald Trump. For instance, posts across the accounts we studied now contain the words “American” and “president” more than twice as often as they did during the last year of the Biden administration.

The differences in language are especially notable for some agencies. For example, there has been a fivefold increase in the share of Immigration and Customs Enforcement posts that mention the word “criminal.” And terms like “AI,” “dominance” and “coal” are now mentioned in around one-in-ten posts from the Department of Energy after appearing rarely, if ever, in Biden-era posts.

#### Some federal agencies have deleted X posts from previous administrations

The State Department recently announced that it would [delete its X posts](https://www.npr.org/2026/02/07/nx-s1-5704785/state-department-trump-posts-x) from before January 2025 and archive them internally, rather than keeping them public. (We collected data from this account before those posts were removed.)

### Several top government X accounts have deleted posts from previous administrations

*Top U.S. government X accounts by follower count, as of February 2026*

| Account | Follower count in millions | posts removed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| WhiteHouse | 8.5 | no |
| DeptofWar | 6.8 | yes |
| StateDept | 6.6 | yes |
| CDCgov | 5.5 | no |
| DOGE | 4.8 | no |
| Interior | 4.6 | no |
| FBI | 4.0 | no |
| CIA | 3.6 | no |
| DHSgov | 2.9 | no |
| TheJusticeDept | 2.2 | yes |

Source: Analysis of 30 U.S. government X accounts (27 operated by Cabinet-level agencies and subagencies, plus @DOGE, @WhiteHouse and @RapidResponse47) collected Feb. 11-18, 2026.

Pre-January 2025 posts have also been removed from the accounts operated by Customs and Border Protection (@CBP), the Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept), the U.S. Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) and the Department of Defense – which is also known by its secondary title, the Department of War (@DeptofWar). The department retains the DOD account despite [changing its handle](https://usafacts.org/articles/department-of-defense-or-department-of-war-which-is-it/) in 2025.

Two of these accounts – @StateDept and @DeptofWar – are among the top three government accounts on X by number of followers.

#### @DOGE and @RapidResponse47 stand out from other executive X accounts

Despite only existing since early 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, stands out for its presence and visibility on X. With 4.8 million followers as of February 2026, it is the fifth-most followed government account we examined.

The DOGE account also received far more engagement on the platform in the Trump administration’s first year than any other account we analyzed. The typical @DOGE post on X received almost 29,000 likes and reposts – more than three times the engagement received by the average post from @WhiteHouse, the second-most engaged-with account. [Much like the agency itself](https://usafacts.org/articles/what-is-going-on-with-doge/), however, the DOGE account has become inactive in recent months.

Another new account with a notable presence on X is @RapidResponse47, an affiliate of the official White House account [created in January 2025](https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/12/icymi-white-house-launches-media-bias-portal-to-expose-fake-news/) to support the Trump agenda. It is by far the most active of the accounts we examined, with an average of almost 40 posts per day. The typical post from this account received about 3,400 likes and reposts, making it the third-most engaged-with account of the second Trump administration.