This is the Tangle Sunday Edition, a brief roundup of our independent politics coverage plus some extra features for your Sunday morning reading.
What the right is doodling.
What the left is doodling.
Reader essay.
Something we’ve noticed during our relatively young lifetime as a news organization is the way that our content can be stifled by Meta — either on Facebook or Instagram. We’ve also noticed that conversations about issues that occur in online spaces are often one-dimensional and contribute to polarization. Incoming George Washington University student Preeti Kulkarni noticed this, too, and she described how her frustration with digital activism led her to no longer even be able to open the app. You can read the full piece here.
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Reader review.
In this section, we like to include reader responses that counter or challenge opinions we publish in the newsletter. In response to our reader question about why we still refer to Donald Trump as “President Trump”, Bryn from Spokane wrote in to describe how the State Department’s guidelines differ from the AP guidelines that we follow:
In today's newsletter, you answered a question about why you refer to former President Trump as "President Trump." You cite that people are always referred to by their highest title. I have been a member of Protocol and Diplomacy International and been through protocol training courses through The Protocol School of Washington, which includes many social secretaries, protocol officers, and other high ranking diplomatic officers of US and foreign countries. This is the protocol rule taught by them and I have seen it confirmed by Capricia Marshall, who was social secretary for the Clintons and ambassador/Chief Protocol Officer for the Obamas.
If the office is a one-person-at-a-time office (such as president, cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, governors), the office holders go back to their former highest title when they leave the office. For example, Dwigh Eisenhower would have reverted to General Eisenhower, while Harry Truman would have reverted to Mr. Truman. The contemporary practice is to orally address and refer to former presidents as President (name) in conversation, but in writing, they would be referred to by their former highest title or as the Honorable.
I understand why this rule is often ignored or just not known because it is proper protocol to allow congressmen, senators, and judges to retain their titles because they are not in a one-person-at-a-time office. I know it's a small point and with so many media outlets not abiding by the protocol rule these days, no one really cares. And it could be that the writing guidelines you use have this protocol issue cited incorrectly, but according to the state department, former President Trump should not be addressed as President Trump in writing.
Tangle’s main stories this week were the Hunter Biden trial, New York's congestion pricing pause, Israel's hostage rescue, and the latest economic indicators. For full versions, you can find all of our past coverage in our archive.