If you want to rub people’s faces in the fact that Trump is president, you would say “President Trump.”
During the election itself, a lot of Republicans would avoid saying his name. They would avoid saying they support Trump. They’d say the support “the Republican nominee.” Hence, just calling him “the President” comes across as an extension of that.
Can we know for sure that’s what’s going on? Not really. We’d have to have data on how often previous presidents were just called “the President” by their own party, and how often they used his name.
Seems like a fairly easy research project. One could look solely at the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House, when they were both of the same party as the sitting President, and at the Minority leaders (of Senate and House) when not of the same party.
My bet would be that there will be no other instances of same-party S & H leaders avoiding saying the name of their same-party President, on as regular and predictable a basis as with Mssrs. McConnell and Ryan. (Because no other heads of the Senate and House have been as frightened of being associated with their same-party President as they.)
I pit myself for having been unclear: the suggested objects of research would simply be the Majority or Minority leaders of the Senate and House–whichever one is of the same party of the sitting President.
I don’t feel any obligation to prove my contention that Ryan, McConnell, Chaffetz, and other GOP leaders who are “allied” with Trump are avoiding saying his name, by the way. I’d simply challenge anyone who’s skeptical to listen to the gentlemen in question in all their political pronouncements, going forward. Those who are attempting to stay on the wagon might well make a drinking game of it: Take a drink each time Paul Ryan says “I agree with President Trump” or anything similar. You will stay dry as the Sahara!
The Democrats say “the Republicans passed an executive order that banned muslims” because associating all republicans with the actions of their Republican president is good politics.
Republicans say “the President” because they want to make it about the office and not the man because the man is so fucking horribly flawed.
Well, if they hold office under him, and writhing at his being refuse to say his name like nasty little schoolgirls disrespecting their teacher without the guts to defy her openly, giggling at their veiled defiance, that’s gonna reflect more on them, their pettiness and spite, their cowardice and petulance than on the tyrant they abhor.
If they object to him in any way they should not hold office under him.
I have the severest objections to Victor Hugo, but he did not, like Ollivier, join with the government of one he loathed more than any here loathe Trump.
And, the Association-Equals-Electoral-Defeat abomination in the White House ? The Republicans would not now be controlling the Houses, the States and all else had it not been for Trump. Certainly he would not have won had the Democrats not nominated Hillary, but he was the Bringer of Victory. They faced defeat without him.
I’m going with what someone said earlier: they do not want any auditory record of any of them speaking his name, because such recordings–even though made in completely benign contexts–may be replayed out of context and used against them in future elections. This is the world we live in now. Keep your ass covered at all times. And your mouth shut. Fuck leadership or taking a risk for something you believe. Just huddle in the shadows and see no-hear no-speak no evil, especially about Trump. Protect yourself.
I’m sorry but much of this thread is total nonsense. Afraid of saying his name? Jesus.
The reason people say “the President” is because they’ve been saying that forever. They called Obama “The President” and they called G.W. Bush “the President” and they called Clinton “the President” and on and on. It’s a normal, long-entrenched convention of American English.
I think you may be deliberately misunderstanding the issue. Sure, “the President” is common usage.
What is uncommon is to carefully avoid EVER saying “President Trump”…even when it would be natural to do so–grammatically, or to make the sense of what’s being said clear. One example: the long recital by Mitch McConnell, on an ABC News 1-29 appearance, of the history of Supreme Court nominee-treatment under various presidents. He names “President Clinton” and President Obama" and after a while mentions “the President”, making it unclear which President he means—because he knows that any audio of him saying “President Trump” with something other than criticism, can and will be used against him in future elections:
It’s not as though it’s impossible to figure out what President he was referencing–it’s just that it would have been a lot clearer if he’d simply said “President Trump.” But Mitch McConnell is too canny a politician to say “President Trump,” given that he wasn’t uttering a criticism of Trump.
And this is an observable pattern. The GOP Senators and Representatives who are presenting themselves as allies of Trump, are being very, very, very careful that no sound bites of them speaking of “President Trump” with approval will be available. Because they know such sound bites will be used against them.
Listen, and you’ll find that this is what is happening. And it isn’t random.