United States (US) federal government accounts are drawing far more attention on X under President Donald Trump than they did in the final year of Joe Biden’s administration, according to new research from the Pew Research Center, one of America’s most established non-partisan polling and public opinion research institutions. The data point to a broader change in how the American state communicates online. Under Trump, official accounts are reaching further, using sharper political language, building new messaging channels, and presenting a more clearly Trump-era public face.

Pew examined 30 US government X accounts. X is the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and remains one of the most important spaces for American political argument, news distribution, and elite opinion formation. The accounts studied included 27 operated by Cabinet-level agencies and selected subagencies, as well as the White House account, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) account, and the White House rapid response account.

The study compared posts from the last year of the Biden administration with posts from the first year of Trump’s second administration. Across the 24 accounts where year-on-year comparisons were possible, the median number of likes and reposts per post rose from 197 under Biden to 929 under Trump. [The median is the middle value between two numbers, so in this example, half of all posts under Biden were liked and reposted fewer than 197 times and half of all posts were liked and reposted more than 197 times. Conversely, half of all posts under Trump were liked and reshared fewer than 929 times and the remaining half of all posts were liked and reshared more than 929 times.] Pew found that 22 of the 24 accounts recorded higher engagement in the Trump period, showing that the increase was broad-based rather than driven by a few standout accounts.

Engagement is not the same as approval, but it does show reach (how far a post travels and how many people it is likely to be seen by). A post that is liked, shared, or reposted more often is more likely to reach journalists, voters, campaigners, lawmakers, and political opponents. In modern politics, that makes government communication part of the contest for power and attention.

Some of the largest changes were at agencies central to Trump’s governing agenda. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal department responsible for border security, immigration enforcement, and domestic security, saw its median engagement rise from 57 likes and reposts per post under Biden to 2 268 under Trump, almost 40 times higher. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency inside DHS that enforces immigration law and carries out deportations, rose from 25 to 1 950, meaning its median engagement was 78 times higher under Trump.

The Department of Labor (DOL), which oversees workplace rules, employment policy, and labour statistics, rose from 16 to 2 152, more than 134 times higher. The White House account, the main official account of the president’s administration, rose from 2 112 to 8 614, just over four times higher.

The shift in engagement is not simply a matter of posting more content. Pew found that most of the accounts studied were posting about as often, or somewhat less often, than they did under Biden. But several key accounts, including the White House, DHS, and ICE, now post more than twice as often as they did in the Biden period.

The wording of federal agency posts has also shifted toward the main themes of Trump’s second administration. Across the accounts Pew studied, posts now mention “American” and “president” more than twice as often as they did in Biden’s final year.

The clearest change is in immigration enforcement. The share of ICE posts using the word “criminal” rose from 7% under Biden to 40% under Trump. The share using “arrested” rose from 11% to 42%. The share using “alien”, a term for a non-citizen, rose from 0% to 43%, while the share using “illegal” rose from 1% to 24%.

The language places immigration enforcement squarely in the law-and-order frame, with crime, border control, and national authority at the centre. The same pattern appears in other policy areas.

At the Department of Commerce, which oversees trade, industry, business conditions, and economic development, the share of posts using “manufacturing” rose from 4% under Biden to 13% under Trump. The share using “deals” rose from 0% to 13%, while the share using “tariffs” rose from 0% to 10%.

The language mirrors the Trump administration’s own political vocabulary. Trade is described through manufacturing, deals, and tariffs. Immigration is described through enforcement, crime, and border control. The accounts are therefore doing more than announcing agency activity. They are explaining the purpose of those agencies through the administration’s own language.

DOGE is the clearest example of how the Trump administration has built new public messaging machinery around its governing agenda. The account did not exist during the Biden administration, but by February 2026, just over a year into Trump’s second term, it had reached 4.8 million followers. That is unusually fast growth for a government account. Pew found that DOGE was already the fifth-most followed government account in its study, behind only the White House, the Department of War, the State Department, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DOGE gives institutional form to one of Trump’s central second-term themes, the claim that Washington’s bureaucracy must be cut back, disciplined, and made more accountable. Its reach shows how quickly that message has moved from campaign language into official government communication. The typical DOGE post received almost 29 000 likes and reposts, more than three times the engagement of the typical White House post.

The White House rapid response account, Rapid Response 47, also shows how the administration is using X to fight political arguments in real time. Created in January 2025, it is used to defend the president, promote the administration’s agenda, and respond quickly to media or political criticism. Pew found that it was the most active account in the study, averaging almost 40 posts per day. Its typical post received about 3 400 likes and reposts.

Pew also found that several major government accounts had removed posts from previous administrations, though it did not list examples of the deleted posts. The clearest case was the State Department, which had announced that X posts from before January 2025 would be archived internally rather than remain publicly visible.