The former president told Kristen Welker that he isn’t worried about going to jail, he thinks he can broker peace on abortion and where he stands on shutting down the government.
The former president told Kristen Welker that he isn’t worried about going to jail, he thinks he can broker peace on abortion and where he stands on shutting down the government.
It’s not, actually. Protocol requires that there only be one President at a time and after the end of the final term one’s title reverts to their second most-hugest held title — Mister Trump, Senator Obama, Governors Bush and Clinton.
The issue is that news media is trained to write and speak so that the broadest audience can consume the copy, so referring to former Presidents by that title had become commonplace. You see it almost everywhere now, however formal correspondence or address in formal setting (i.e. a state dinner) would use the correct protocol.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/10/21/addressing-a-former-president/74852958-5995-4068-9f91-a6851bb893a5/
A quick Google on why. There’s lots of similar sources.
Got a source? It seems silly to revert to titles which are also no longer actively held by people. I do like the idea though, since Trump pioneered the imperial presidency.