Clarifying our style referencing the president’s name in stories

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President Donald Trump signs executive order 2025. AP Photo by Evan Vucci.
President Donald Trump signs executive order 2025. AP Photo by Evan Vucci.

WINK News has received multiple emails from viewers concerned about our approach to referring to President Donald Trump on-air and online, only by his last name on second reference.

We follow the Associated Press style of writing and its rules for referencing subjects.

Following a consistent style is essential to our newsroom, so listening to or reading our stories is more straightforward and smoother for our viewers and readers.

It doesn’t matter whether the subject is a man on the street or the man in the Oval Office; referring to the story’s subject a second or subsequent time means we use only their last name.

We’ve reprinted the AP style rule regarding referencing presidents, with examples, including the second reference, in italics from the most current online stylebook below:

Capitalize president only as a formal title before one or more names: President Joe Biden, former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

Lowercase in all other uses: The president said Monday he will look into the matter. He is running for president. Lincoln was president during the Civil War.
See titles.

FULL NAMES: Use the first and family name on first reference to a current or former U.S. president or the president-elect: former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, President-elect Joe Biden. On subsequent references, use only the last name.

For presidents of other nations and of organizations and institutions, capitalize president as a formal title before a full name: President Emmanuel Macron of France, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi.

On second reference, use only the last name.

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