JAMIE DIEDRICH
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
LAYOUT EDITOR
4/13/2026
The White House released an app on Mar. 27, not to be confused with the president’s already existing social media app Truth Social.
The app opens to an unskippable mini ad for the app itself, which seems to only happen once, before introducing categories including his investments, his achievements and the cost of current common items labeled ‘affordability’. There is also a gallery and a widget with his schedule.
“I can’t answer what a White House app should contain until the White House can figure out what the point of the app is. They are already on social media, so I’m not sure what it adds or is supposed to add. I think even if I don’t think it is appropriate, technology and politics will always overlap. The key is for the politician to engage responsibly and ethically using it,” said Professor Matthew Doggett, a Lecturer of Communication.
Donald Trump is the first president to have multiple apps, both one for social media and one for the White House, after being a frequent user of X (formerly Twitter). There is a social tab of the White House app; it contains reposts of his Truth Social posts or news footage flattering the administration.
“The federal government has been one but not the only actor interested in the development of communication technologies that allow for increasingly direct pipelines between the governed and those who govern them, with varying degrees of success, varying degrees of interest, and while controlling the flow of information directly,” said Professor Ben Taylor, Assistant Professor of Political Science.
There is a news tab, entirely partisan, discussing Trump with titles, for example, like, ‘White President Trump Directed Heroic Rescue, the Radical Left Spread Deranged Lies’ from Apr. 6.
“At this point in time, it seems like the current president in the White House is highly interested in controlling the flow of information to the American public. If we’re going to talk about bias, then we’re talking about the selection of information. We do have to acknowledge that it would be totally impossible to present all the information in a single moment. There’s a big break between the idea of totally informing the public and trying to persuade the public,” said Taylor.
Disregarding the categories for further research, the front page of the app includes a big widget for the current story and small news stories closer to the bottom of the page. The news tab, which is separate, has categories as well, one of which includes fact sheets where he details his decisions and the optimal outcomes.
“I think the question is, does the way that any given individual in power comport with the conception of the world that we are willing to affirm? That’s a question that goes directly to people’s partisan interests,” said Dr. Taylor.
The app has a detailed gallery tab with annotated images inside folders captioned with details about the image, and a ‘live’ tab that appears to include screen recordings of press briefs. This tab has clips, playlists, and allows for the distinction of remarks and full briefings.
“In a complex international or global environment, one of the crucial functions of a Free Press is to be adversarial in relation to those who are in roles of political power in order to demand that they provide some sort of evidence for their assertions. And so if you did not have a free and independent press, then you would need a sort of government-run press that was itself capable of being adversarial in the same way,” said Dr. Taylor.
The Almanian: News 
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