Donald Trump forced to hand over phone to Secret Service before inauguration

His new handset has been described as 'a secure, encrypted device approved by the Secret Service'

Trump will gain control of the Presidential Twitter account on 20 January, but will continue to tweet from his personal one too (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

Donald Trump has given up his personal smartphone ahead of his inauguration.

The President-elect, who has caused endless controversy over recent months with tweets from his infamous @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, has had the Android device replaced with a more secure handset.

While the exact type of smartphone he will use as President is unclear, the New York Times describes it as “a secure, encrypted device approved by the Secret Service.”

The report adds that Trump has been given a new number that “few people possess”.

However, Trump has said that he will continue tweeting from his personal account as President.

In an interview published in the Times, Trump said that he had considered cutting down his Twitter use, but has decided not to because his reach is so large and he feels that the press are unkind to him.

Trump’s team will also send out updates from the Presidential Twitter account when it gains control of it on 20 January.

The tweets from outgoing President Barack Obama’s eight years in office, meanwhile, will be preserved and transferred to the account @Potus44.

When Obama first entered office in 2009, he campaigned to keep his BlackBerry, despite security warnings from the Secret Service. He eventually got his way, but had to settle for a heavily modified handset with limited functionality.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last summer, Obama described the handset he was using at the time, saying that his handlers told him the phone was “state of the art, but it doesn’t take pictures, you can’t text, the phone doesn’t work, and you can’t play your music on it.