‘Words matter:' Titles, Trump and what to call a former president

WASHINGTON (AP) — He’s a criminal defendant, a businessman and a politician. But to his most loyal supporters, Donald Trump will always be Mr. President. As for the guy currently serving in the White House, they call him Biden, or maybe just Joe.

That’s the conclusion from research that did a deep dive into political ads on Facebook and Instagram that found a sharp divide in how Americans refer to the two contenders for the White House. In pro-Trump ads, Trump is still “President Trump,” even though he left the White House three years ago.

When it comes to signaling our political loyalties, language can be just as telling as a MAGA cap, offering a simple by subtle reminder of the false election claims that continue to reverberate online, as well as the polarization that has gripped our politics and divided our people.

“Words matter,” said Jennifer Stromer-Galley, the Syracuse University professor who led the research. Giving Trump the title of president, she said, is a way of signaling that “We share your ideology and we understand — nudge nudge — that Donald Trump is the rightful president.”

Stromer-Galley’s analysis underscores that division, finding that the ads referring to Trump as “President Trump” were right-leaning, whereas left-leaning ads were more likely to refer to him simply as “Trump.” To Stromer-Galley, it shows that the people buying online ads know their audience, and have cracked the code for appealing to Trump’s supporters. By calling him “president,” the ads are saying to the viewer that they’re on the same side, she said, and that they agree that the 2020 election was rigged.

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