Reminds me of this haha:
The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.
When addressing a former President of the United States in a formal setting, the correct form is “Mr. LastName.” (“President LastName” or “Mr. President” are terms reserved for the current head of state.) This is true for other ex-officials, as well. When talking about the person to a third party, on the other hand, it’s appropriate to say, “former President LastName.” This holds for introductions, as well: A current state governor is introduced as “Governor Tom Smith,” while you’d introduce an ex-governor as “former Governor Jim Bell.”
And from an embassy’s official page:
Addressing Former Presidents
When sending letters to former Presidents, the proper form for addressing the envelope is: The Honorable (President’s name)
The proper form for the salutation in the letter is: Dear Mr. (President’s last name)
But I vaguely remember military training suggesting that using President Name was a correct term when referring to former presidents. Possibly not though, and I didn’t work in protocol, so the state department seems like a pretty good resource.
It reads to me like they’re just avoiding repeating “former” over and over. It’s already established it’s the former president earlier in the text.
The current President is "President <lastname>".
Former presidents are "Mr. <lastname>" or "Former President <lastname>" depending on the context in which they are being referred to.
Anybody still calling Obama or Trump "president" are just virtue signaling.
No, “Former President” isn’t a title. Once you’re a President, you’re always President X.
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.
If it's Donald Trump, the proper way to address him is:
🖕🖕
Everyone else is "Mr. President."
:stares in Australian:
We don't address people by their job title here, and we'd laugh in your face if you insisted on it.
Perhaps a small exception for 'doctor', but that's acknowledging the doctorate, not the job.
If you think the words 'prime minister Morrison' would ever have passed my lips...
... or 'prime minister Albo' for that matter, they're all overgrown fucking real estate agents.
I find using doctor without a medical degree to be, I dunno, crass. Its the old. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE. Im a doctor. thank god can you help this man. of philosophy.
Eh, you earn the title by doing your thesis and expanding humanity's sphere of knowledge a little bit. Medical doctors may claim it but they don't get exclusive rights to it just because they want it.
oh sure. not saying they earned it but I find the ones who get one and actually want to use the title to be folks I don't vibe as well with. I do tend toward academia though so there is professor in that case.
Yet the idea underpinning it is sound. It's to separate the office from the individual. If you attach reverence to the role, not the person, you make it easier to change the person and avoid dictatorship.
It doesn't read that way to me - I see it far more as "you have won at life, you are better than other humans", exactly the kind of thing narcissists crave.
Not if the alternative is that people begin to see the role and the person as the same thing. That's the dream of every would-be dictator. A certain chancellor of Germany knew this very well in 1934 when he abolished the titles of Chancellor and President and made the army swear its oath to him personally.
This is just standard political theory: to protect democracy, respect its institutions. Absolutely does make sense to me.
Most medical doctors arehonorary doctors- they generally don't have PhD (doctorate in their own right)
depends. normally "former president X", but if they have been impeached then you say "IMPEACHED former president X" unless they lost the popular vote then its "UNPOPULAR IMPEACHED former president X" unless they lost an election like a one termer then its "ONE TERM LOSER UNPOPULAR IMPEACHED former president X". Its important to be accurate.
We may soon be able to tack CONVICTED FELON onto that list.
If it's too unwieldy after that, perhaps just use their prisoner ID number.
However they wish to be addressed. Nothing in properness or etiquette is necessarily objective. If I was president, I'd let you use my actual name.
Depends on the president. The current one I'd go with "heya Joe" but the former one I'd go with "hey jackass."
Depends on the context and how conservative you are (in the sense of tradition for tradition, not politics or anything else). Tradition holds that you call someone at that level of elected office by their previous title. If you want to break with tradition, you can call them whatever you want. You didn’t sign any legally binding agreements that say you have to call someone a fancy title. This holds for judges, doctors, and other people that think random chance and living their life gives them a special name that you don’t get.
IIRC customarily a former president of the United States of America is still addressed as, “Mr. President.” In written form such as a news article I think it would be “former-president Clinton” or “former-president George H. W. Bush” if you need to distinguish between two presidents with the same last name, and subsequent references would be to “Mr. Clinton” or “Mr. Bush” as long as there’s no ambiguity, but I would defer to whatever style guide applies to your writing. I’m pretty sure that’s covered in the AP Stylebook and that’s as good an authority as any for US English. I have an old copy somewhere but it’s not easily accessible right now.
I know it's not "correct" but I would just call them Mr/Mrs, they aren't president any more.