# Has a sitting US President ever used email? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366 "2015-06-01T18:40:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/1 "2015-06-01T18:40:57Z")
What is known about the usage of electronic mail by US Presidents for official business? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/2 "2015-06-01T19:34:54Z")
Do you seriously think it’s possible for anyone running anything, much less an entire country, these days to do so without use of e-mail? ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/3 "2015-06-01T19:55:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Do you seriously think it’s possible for anyone running anything, much less an entire country, these days to do so without use of e-mail? Absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/4 "2015-06-01T19:56:33Z")
Maybe they dictate; I daresay that they aren’t permitted to just troll on the internet when off duty. Look at the ridiculous fuss over Mrs Clinton’s email usage. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/5 "2015-06-01T19:58:47Z")
> [@](#): > > In March, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security said she never uses e-mail—ever. “I think e-mail just sucks up time,” she told reporters at an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “I stopped using e-mail when I was attorney general of Arizona. I was like, ‘Why am I spending my time scrolling through this?’” [http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-07-16/mlb-s-bud-selig-proudly-joins-the-executive-no-email-crowd](http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-07-16/mlb-s-bud-selig-proudly-joins-the-executive-no-email-crowd) ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/6 "2015-06-01T20:03:01Z")
> [@](#): > > CEO Bans Email > > Eighteen months from now Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos—one of the largest information technology companies in the world, plans to have eliminated email as a communication and collaboration medium within his company. “If people want to talk to me, call or send me a text message,” said Breton. “Emails cannot replace the spoken word.” > **[CEO Bans Email](https://www.forbes.com/sites/tykiisel/2011/11/30/ceo-bans-email/)** > > You heard right. Eighteen months from now Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos—one of the largest information technology companies in the world, plans to have eliminated email as a communication and collaboration medium within his company. "If people want to... ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/7 "2015-06-01T20:05:37Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > [Bloomberg - Are you a robot?](http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-07-16/mlb-s-bud-selig-proudly-joins-the-executive-no-email-crowd) You’re aware of the fact that _unusual things make the news_, right? If “no email in the government” were the general rule, why bother writing an article about how this government official doesn’t use email? ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/8 "2015-06-01T20:10:02Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > You’re aware of the fact that _unusual things make the news_, right? > > If “no email in the government” were the general rule, why bother writing an article about how this government official doesn’t use email? All I’m looking for is a single mention (cite) of a sitting US President ever having written an email. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/9 "2015-06-01T20:13:19Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > All I’m looking for is a single mention (cite) of a sitting US President ever having written an email. Obama emails me all the time asking for money. Especially in 2012. [perhaps it was his campaign, but they pretended it was from him.] ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/10 "2015-06-01T20:18:56Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > All I’m looking for is a single mention (cite) of a sitting US President ever having written an email. [They keep on the down-low about it.](http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2015/0311/Does-Obama-have-a-private-e-mail-account-Why-White-House-won-t-say.-video) That link strongly implies he personally sends official emails, but maybe even those are done by an assistant. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/11 "2015-06-01T20:31:29Z")
Bill Clinton never has and to this day still doesn’t use email ([actually, he did, twice](http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/03/10/bill-clinton-still-doesnt-use-email/)). I’m also guessing that Ronald Reagan and also George Bush (the elder) didn’t do so. I vaguely recall (no cite, might be apocryphal) reading a story many years ago that George W. Bush made an conscious decision at the beginning of his presidency not to use email in the White House. Obama of course is tech geek, he loved his blackberry and he certainly would be the type to use email extensively. I wonder, though, if he really does. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/12 "2015-06-01T20:40:04Z")
Obama most likely just emails or texts his wife, kids and maybe a couple of top advisors. The conversations are probably like, “Come here now!”, “I’m running late, sorry” and “What you want for dinner?”. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/13 "2015-06-01T21:14:54Z")
Some of Obama’s e-mail [got hacked](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/us/russian-hackers-read-obamas-unclassified-emails-officials-say.html), so apparently it does exist. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/14 "2015-06-01T21:37:05Z")
There was an interview with him a few years back where he read an email from one of the other parents at his kids school. So he apparently uses it for family stuff anyways. I think most highlevel stuff in the US gov’t is still done through reports and memos. Though I imagine those are probably increasingly electronically distributed, so the difference between them and email is probably getting kind of academic. Plus it seems like everyone has at least one crazy uncle that emails them racist anti-Obama screeds, so presumably Obama does to. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/15 "2015-06-01T21:43:02Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Bill Clinton never has and to this day still doesn’t use email ([actually, he did, twice](http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/03/10/bill-clinton-still-doesnt-use-email/)). I’m also guessing that Ronald Reagan and also George Bush (the elder) didn’t do so. I vaguely recall (no cite, might be apocryphal) reading a story many years ago that George W. Bush made an conscious decision at the beginning of his presidency not to use email in the White House. Obama of course is tech geek, he loved his blackberry and he certainly would be the type to use email extensively. I wonder, though, if he really does. > [@Simplicio](#): > > There was an interview with him a few years back where he read an email from one of the other parents at his kids school. So he apparently uses it for family stuff anyways. > > I think most highlevel stuff in the US gov’t is still done through reports and memos. Though I imagine those are probably increasingly electronically distributed, so the difference between them and email is probably getting kind of academic. > > Plus it seems like everyone has at least one crazy uncle that emails them racist anti-Obama screeds, so presumably Obama does to. I vaguely remember a story about GW Bush being advised not to use email. I believe it was for legal purposes. He possibly used it, but I think Presidents may use email for only the most mundane business/family issues. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/16 "2015-06-02T16:26:32Z")
Wait, the CEO quoted above says that “emails cannot replace the spoken word,” so why does he suggest sending a text message as a suitable replacement? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/17 "2015-06-02T16:30:47Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Maybe they dictate; I daresay that they aren’t permitted to just troll on the internet when off duty. That gives me an awesome mental image of Obama taking a few minutes to relax by trolling FreeRepublic. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sitting-us-president-ever-used-email/721366/18 "2015-06-02T16:35:31Z")
[Link.](http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/22/technology/security/nsa-obama-blackberry/) > [@](#): > > It was a rough day at the NSA in 2008 when President Obama asked for a smartphone. . . . According to George, the president simply wanted a phone that enabled him to communicate with his advisers. . . . What functionality the president’s phone actually possesses is secret – and the NSA won’t even confirm that he can use it to send a text or write an email (but it’s a pretty safe bet it isn’t used for Oval Office selfies). Also - [Link.](http://blogs.blackberry.com/2014/11/you-cant-run-the-worlds-most-powerful-nation-without-your-blackberry-president-obama-discovers/) > [@](#): > > The media were rife Friday morning with pictures of President Barack Obama sprinting back from the Presidential helicopter back into the White House to retrieve his trusty, secure phone (here’s a video). > > As the Wall Street Journal described it: “President Barack Obama is still a BlackBerry fan. The president’s attachment to the device was on full display Friday. Mr. Obama left the White House and crossed the lawn to get on Marine One, the first step in his trip to Las Vegas for an immigration speech later in the day. But he quickly got off the helicopter and headed back into the White House. He told reporters: ‘I forgot something.’ . . . > > Obama is far from the only world leader choosing us. As we’ve noted on this blog, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt are among the world leaders who are known to use BlackBerry devices. Merkel uses a BlackBerry Q10 specially-augmented with voice encryption technology from our recent acquisition, SecuSmart.