President Trump may own Truth Social, but his federal agencies have been reluctant to use the platform.
Four weeks after Inauguration Day, no major federal department or agency has opened a verified account on Truth Social.
A few department and agency leaders have accounts, though they appear to be carried over from their stints as governors or members of Congress.
That could start to change.
Several agencies contacted by The Washington Times indicated that they were investigating the president’s platform and hoping to join it.
“We’re working to create a Truth Social account and anticipate doing so soon,” a Labor Department official told The Times.
Jeremy Mayer, a political scientist at George Mason University, said the decision should be easy for agency technology and communications staffers looking to ingratiate themselves with Mr. Trump.
“Why not be on Truth Social if you want to keep your job?” he said. “They’re going through the federal bureaucracy with the broad sweep of ‘Let’s fire a lot of people.’ If you want to keep your job, it’s a smart play.”
The only major Trump team players on Truth Social have been Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has an active account she brought from her job as South Dakota’s governor; Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who created an account over the summer when he began his political flirtation with Mr. Trump; and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Agencies are reticent, leaving the field to a plethora of joke and fan accounts.
While Truth Social attracts a large contingent of conservative users, Bluesky is winning over liberal users. Agencies also have been slow to adopt Bluesky.
The Labor Department created a Bluesky account in January in the final days of the Biden administration. The account shows no activity since Mr. Trump took office.
An official said the Department of Homeland Security has strict rules about social media platforms, which must be approved before agencies can open accounts.
The department lists more than 420 social media accounts. About half are Facebook, most of which are Coast Guard pages. It has 118 X accounts, 27 Instagram accounts, 11 YouTube accounts, nine Threads accounts, 14 LinkedIn pages and a scattering of others such as Vimeo and Google Books.
Ms. Noem holds the lone Truth Social account and no Bluesky account.
That means U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which have actively shared Mr. Trump’s immigration accomplishments on X, are ignoring the Truth Social and Bluesky audiences.
The Times reached out to both agencies for this report but didn’t receive substantive responses.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, another Homeland Security branch whose mission includes providing critical updates to the public, is on X but not on Truth Social or Bluesky. FEMA didn’t respond to an inquiry.
An official said the department recently completed a review process to approve Truth Social and Bluesky as valid options.
The IRS, like FEMA, provides critical information to taxpayers but has no presence on Truth Social or Bluesky. That agency also didn’t provide answers to questions from The Times.
Additional inquiries to HHS, the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and the Education Department went unanswered.
The State Department’s spreadsheet of social media accounts lists 252, including 96 on X and 54 on Facebook. Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube follow. No Truth Social or Bluesky accounts are listed.
The FBI also lacks a presence in Truth Social or Bluesky. The bureau relied on Justice Department guidance to determine which accounts to use.
“Any new platform requires a thorough approval process, including privacy threat assessment, record-keeping, content moderation for security and specialized government terms of service,” the bureau said.
The Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, said it expects agencies to start joining.
“Truth Social is making arrangements in expectation of onboarding multiple U.S. agencies that have inquired about joining the platform,” the company told The Times.
Bluesky has grown far more rapidly than Truth Social, reportedly reaching more than 30 million users. Public estimates for Truth Social’s reach range from 2 million to 6 million active users.
X remains the dominant player, with about 600 million users. X is owned by Elon Musk, a close political ally of Mr. Trump’s and head of his Department of Government Efficiency office within the White House.
In an indication of X’s dominance, the National Transportation Safety Board, which was handling the investigation into the horrific airplane-helicopter collision over the Potomac River last month, said it was no longer emailing press alerts to reporters but instead directed them to follow the agency’s X account for updates and to go to YouTube to schedule press conferences.
NTSB does not have a Truth Social or Bluesky account.
Mr. Mayer said he understood agencies’ reluctance to sign up for Bluesky while Mr. Trump is in office, given the platform’s decidedly liberal bent. Indeed, “resistance” accounts from employees at federal agencies such as the National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency have appeared on Bluesky.
Mr. Mayer called Truth Social the “crippled stepchild of social media” but said if he were in charge of an agency’s social media, “I would get on it as fast as I could.”
He noted the irony.
“Just imagine if Hunter Biden had started a social media platform called Social Truth and then we got agencies starting to use it and Cabinet secretaries starting to use it, even though it was complete grift. Which is what Truth Social is: It’s a way to funnel money to Trump,” Mr. Mayer said.
Ethics watchdogs said Mr. Trump’s ownership could create legal complications. Participation from federal agencies could draw more users to the platform, potentially enriching the president.
Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel at the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that would run afoul of the Constitution’s emoluments clauses.
“As president, he has influence over executive branch agencies, and his refusal to divest signals to foreign and domestic government officials that to stay in his good graces, they must support his business ventures, including incentivizing the public to join Trump’s platform if they want to access public services, receive real-time updates or otherwise interact with official government entities,” Mr. Sherman told The Times.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.