You’ve probably noticed a lot of people are saying “President Trump” lately. And reading “President Trump” online, haven’t you?
If not, you’ll probably notice it later today or tomorrow.
[Tweet “Catch yourself saying ‘President Trump’ now? @realDonaldTrump”]
It’s common during election years for pundits to occasionally say “President So-and-so,” usually sarcastically. And some “President Trump” talk is sarcastic. But most of this President Trump talk is subconscious prediction. People think President Trump is a thing, so their brains are warming up.
Just today, for instance, Politico’s lead story read:
Centrist Democrats: We can work with President Trump #
A couple of weeks ago, Bernie Sanders said “President Trump” a few times during a speech. Why didn’t the headline refer to Donald Trump? Because they’re thinking past the sale.
You might think, “I’ve heard people say ‘President Clinton,’ too.” I’m sure you have. But there already is a President Clinton. Bill Clinton. He was President from 1993 to 2001. So you’d expect people to refer to Bill as “President Clinton.” But far more people are talking about President Trump than about President Hillary Clinton. Here’s how I know.
Because there’s already been a President Clinton, mentions of President Clinton should double the mentions of President Trump, assuming people are mentioning President Trump and President (Hillary) Clinton equally. But that’s not the case.
Instead, according Google Trends, over the last 90 days, President Trump trumps President Clinton by 3 to 1:
That means three times as many people are saying “President Trump” as are saying “President Clinton.” And many of the Clinton mentions refer to Bill Clinton, not to crooked Hillary.
When I predicted Trump will win in a landslide, I pointed out that expectations matter. Google Trends now shows clearly that people expect Trump to win.
If you find yourself saying “President Trump,” you’re in good company, no matter your party identity or ideology. Everybody’s saying President Trump these days.
_NOTE: I’ve updated the chart with red for Trump and blue for Clinton to conform to familiar color coding for the parties. Thanks to commenter Dave for pointing this out. _