Former President Donald Trump’s push to kill a bipartisan immigration deal may now derail a major national security package, forcing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to suggest a new course of action and endangering aid to Ukraine and Israel in the process.
Actually, yes. Just like you can default to calling someone Colonel after they’ve retired, you can likewise call a former president “President X.” But that former title doesn’t imbue them with extra rights, respect, or powers. Typically, though, I’ve heard people say “Former President X.” It’s only Republicans that incorrectly refer to him as “President.”
We should reckon with our past, but that doesn’t mean we need to normalize titles of respect where they’re underserved, and Trump doesn’t deserve any current special privilege just because he was president in the past. He doesn’t actually control the Republican party by way of right—they’re simply too spineless to stand up to him.
And that’s the problem. They hold the actual power, but they behave like he’s the one in charge.