Donald Trump will keep posting from his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account after he moves into the White House on Friday.

The President-elect, who successfully used social media to dramatic effect during the election and after, will not be taking up the option of switching to #POTUS which currently has six million fewer followers.

Confirming that he would keep the account, he talked about how much he enjoys having direct access to his followers - and making waves with his uncompromising pronouncements.

The 70-year-old billionaire has 20million followers on his personal Twitter account which has been in operation since March 2009.

Donald Trump will keep control of his personal Twitter feed while in office at the White House

NBC reporter Kelly O'Donnell said members of Trump's transition team confirmed the billionaire intends keeping his own twitter handle rather than switching over to @Potus

The official @POTUS account, which was created in June 2013, has 13.5million followers.

NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Kelly O'Donnell said she had been told by members of Trump's transition team that he was going to continue using his own account instead of the official @POTUS.

President Obama's tweets on the official account will be transferred to the new @POTUS44 account as a public archive.

In an interview for The Times, with Michael Gove, Trump was asked about his plans for his Twitter feed.

He replied that he had 46 million followers on social media and wanted to keep it up. He said: 'I thought I’d do less of it, but I’m covered so dishonestly by the press - so dishonestly - that I can put out Twitter - and it’s not 140, it’s now 280 - I can go bing bing bing.... and they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out - this morning on television, Fox - "Donald Trump, we have breaking news".'

Preparations are underway for Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington on Friday

Donald Trump has 20 million people following his controversial Twitter account

Barack Obama's Twitter account, pictured, has 60.5million more followers than Donald Trump

Trump's Twitter account has 20million followers. He has received 17.5million likes on Facebook and 4.7million followers on Instagram - making 42.2million - some 3.8 million fewer than claimed by the President-elect.

The outgoing President's own @BarackObama account has 80million followers, with a further 12.2million on Instagram and 52.8million likes on Facebook

Trump has launched some of his most vitriolic attacks on people and organisations who be believes are opposed to him - including the CIA - with a string of tweets sent on Sunday night.

During the interview, Trump said he attacked the CIA over 'false information'.

He said he has 'one or two people' who will input his tweets, which he dictates, during the day.

They [the media] can’t do much when you tweet it and I’m careful about, it’s very precise, actually it’s very, very precise Donald Trump discussing Twitter

Discussing the media, Trump said: 'They [the media] can’t do much when you tweet it and I’m careful about, it’s very precise, actually it’s very, very precise — and it comes out breaking news, we have breaking news — ya know, it’s funny, if I did a press release and if I put it out, it wouldn’t get nearly — people would see it the following day — if I do a news conference, that’s a lot of work.'

During the interview Trump also declared that he could agree a nuclear weapons ­reduction deal with Russia's President Putin in return for lifting US sanctions.

He pledged that orders will be signed next Monday to strengthen America's borders, which could include ­travel restrictions on Europeans coming to the US.

The billionaire threatened 'extreme vetting' for those entering America from parts of the world known for Islamist terrorism.

He said that he will start off by trusting Mrs Merkel and Mr Putin - but that might not last long, and attacked NATO as 'obsolete' and claimed they had 'not bothered about terrorism'.

He added that George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq was 'possibly the worst ­decision ever made in the history of our country', ­saying it was like 'throwing rocks into a ­beehive'.