https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/09/joe-biden-saudi-arabia-israel-visit/
In this self-congratulatory WaPo opinion piece about current U.S. policy in the Middle East, President Biden three times refers to his “predecessor” but never once names him. Will somebody please help me out here? I haven’t researched it to find out if it’s common practice for a sitting president to refer to his predecessor as “my predecessor” rather than to name him. I assume that, when this is done, it’s ONLY done when the predecessor was from the other party. Is that the unwritten rule of presidential politics? Did George W. Bush, when he was president, ever refer to his predecessor as “President Clinton” or only as “my predecessor”? Was George W. Bush only referenced as “my predecessor” by Obama, or did then-President Obama refer to his predecessor as “President Bush”?
It seems to me that the decent, respectful, and honorable way for a sitting President of the United States, of either party, to refer to his predecessor, regardless of how he feels about him, is by name and title: President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, and, yes, President Trump.
I recognize that Trump has a major nasty streak in him. He regularly bad-mouths people and calls them derogatory names. When Biden and Trump ran against each other in 2020, Trump called his opponent “Sleepy Joe.” I can see how that would have rubbed then-Vice President Biden the wrong way. So, is this Biden’s retaliation, to not mention Trump by name? Or is it simply the common presidential practice, designed to avoid dignifying the guy who came before?