• Furbag@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Former President is not a title, but you are not always given the title of President just because you’ve held the office. The guy in the chair right now is the President. There can only be one at a time.

    There might be times where you would refer to someone who was a former President as being president, but that’s context specific. For example:

    “Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States.” - Accurate. Even though he no longer holds the office, he is still the 45th president in the present tense. When he dies, it will be “Donald Trump was the 45th President of the United States.”.

    “President Trump instituted a Muslim Ban via executive order in January of 2017.” - Accurate. The text describes actions that Trump took while acting as President of the United States. It is appropriate to confer his title at the time to give context to the statement.

    However:

    “President Donald Trump is running for re-election in November.” - Inaccurate. He is not the President, Joe Biden is. FORMER President Donald Trump, however, is running for re-election.

    This is not hard. It’s basic English, not politics.