The Trump administration has expanded its social media offensive against Democratic rivals to an unexpected platform, as the White House and several federal agencies joined Bluesky on Friday.
For its debut post, the new White House profile shared a compilation of Trump clips and memes, accompanied by the caption, “Hey Bluesky! In case you missed some of our best moments, we put this together for you.”
A number of federal agencies—including the Department of Homeland Security, Commerce, Transportation, Interior, Health and Human Services, State, War, and Transportation—soon followed the White House’s lead by launching their own Bluesky accounts, each quickly posting criticisms of Democrats regarding the ongoing government shutdown.
“We’ve heard this is the place for open, honest discussion, so we’re here to address how the Democrat-led shutdown is damaging our nation’s global standing,” the Department of State posted. (Legal analysts have pointed out that such statements from official agencies may breach the Hatch Act.)
Most of these posts adopted a playful, provocative tone, indicating that the administration’s social media teams expected—and perhaps even welcomed—a backlash on a platform widely seen as a progressive alternative to Elon Musk’s X. Bluesky users responded accordingly, with many replies to the White House’s first post referencing Trump’s ties to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“They’re targeting this platform because they can’t control its users, and it drives them crazy,” wrote The Onion CEO Ben Collins.
Meanwhile, numerous prominent Bluesky users encouraged their followers to simply “block and move on,” with comedian Paul F Tomkins remarking that it’s “Oddly satisfying to block the White House.”
Within less than two days of joining, the White House account had already become one of the most blocked profiles on Bluesky. Data from ClearSky, which monitors blocking statistics on the platform, showed that the White House was blocked by approximately 91,000 users, compared to just 10,000 followers. The only account with more blocks belonged to Vice President JD Vance, who joined in June.
Although the other new government accounts hadn’t reached those numbers by Sunday morning, they made up the entire top five most blocked accounts in the past day. Additionally, some right-wing users appeared to take pride in following the Trump administration to Bluesky and being widely blocked as a result.
