WASHINGTON – Donald Trump has spent his entire life putting his name on steaks in skyscrapers as a form of encouragement, but now the former president seems to be replacing the gold-plated surname with a number: 45.
Last week, the 45th president launched his new official website, 45Office.com, a different URL than his predecessors, who used their names as web addresses.
Trump’s change from his name to his digits has affected his political properties.
Your PAC can be accessed at SaveAmerica45.com. The old tweets from your White House can be found at @ WhiteHouse45. And when his lawyer, Bruce Castor, signed on to represent him in his second impeachment case, he said, “I consider it a privilege to represent the 45th president.”
Like Prince changing his name to a symbol, Trump is defying convention. Former presidents usually use their numbers only as a message between insiders and friends. The only other president to regularly use Twitter, Barack Obama, has his old tweets filed in @ObamaWhiteHouse.
“He was a ‘different’ type of candidate and president and is now a ‘different’ type of ex-president – one with a global brand to manage (as well as prospects for running again in 2024),” said John Boyd, a corporate consultant who works with the real estate sector, said in an email.
Trump’s 45 Office did not respond to requests for comment. People who think a lot about corporate and political branding say it is unlikely that he made a decision lightly.
Branding is a Trump affair – even Bill Clinton called him a “master brander” – and he is so protective of his name that one of his lawyers sent threatening letters demanding that the Republican National Committee and other Republican groups stop using his image in pitches fundraiser refused).
“They can never take that number from him,” said Sam Nunberg, who was one of Trump’s first political advisers before they split up. “Only psychologically, when you say president [Jimmy] Carter or you say President George HW Bush, you think ‘President of a term’. But if you put the number, 45th president, the connection is not so smooth. “
It can also help you avoid a reminder that you are a loser.
Official communications from Trump, who refused to grant the 2020 election and falsely led his supporters to believe that he could overturn his results until the day of his inauguration, never refer to him as the “ex” president – he is always the ” 45th President of the United States of America. “
This is no accident, said David Johnson, a corporate brand consultant in Atlanta, who added that it helps “continue his myth that he is still the president of the United States and reinforce that message with his followers”.
Trump’s new website, 45Office.com, was created on January 12, less than a week after Trump supporters revolted on Capitol Hill to try to stop the counting of electoral votes in President Joe Biden’s victory, according to records from Internet.
Many politicians are known by their employees and friends by nicknames or initials – Hillary Clinton is “HRC”; former Bush presidents are distinguished as “41” and “43” – and Trump is “45” for many of his aides and followers.
Several supporters have already filed trademark applications to the United States Patent Office for “45” branded clothing, although Trump is not one of them – yet.
“As Mel Brooks ‘Yogurt says in’ SpaceBalls ‘:’ Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money in the film is earned. ‘Trump is a brand. ’45’ is the logo, “said Greg Behr, co-founder of a marketing consultancy based in Durham, North Carolina, who worked with companies like Google and Uber, by email.
“Think of it as Michael Jordan in ’23 ‘,” added Behr. “The number becomes synonymous with man, and for fans there is a fascination with owning and exhibiting a part of it. I suspect that you will start to see ’45’ implanted in a range of products that you can own yourself. “
Then there is the fact that the Trump brand needs an update.
“I am provoked by putting my name on my buildings and casinos. Mostly it is a marketing strategy; Trump’s buildings receive higher rents,” wrote Trump in his 2000 book “The America We Deserve”. But that may no longer be true after his hotel and property business suffered from the association with his divisive presidency.
“The ‘Trump’ brand was hindered in its electoral defeat and double impeachment,” said David Painter, who spent 20 years working with brands before joining the faculty at Rollins College, Florida. “Thus, Trump adopted ’45’ (it is even his monogram on his shirts), since it is a neutral number that he would probably prefer people to associate with him than his actual age or characterizations of his presidential term.”
Some of Trump’s former top advisers identify in public biographies as alumni of the “White House 45” or leaving Trump entirely out, perhaps to distance themselves while looking for work in a difficult job market for former members of the Trump team.
The adoption of “45” is perhaps a little ironic, because it was the critics of the left who first insisted on referring to Trump by number. “Don’t use his name EVER,” wrote Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., in a viral post on Facebook days after Trump’s inauguration. “45 will do.”
It was a very common feeling among professional activists and liberal activists at the height of the so-called resistance movement.
“Charge 45! Charge 45! Charge 45!” Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Received applause in July 2017 in a controversial moment that made headlines.
Then again, it can be a mistake to interpret too much the movements of a man known for impulsive decisions.
“People would say he is playing 3D chess. But sometimes he is just playing with blocks,” said Nunberg, Trump’s first adviser. “He loves ‘these’ – ‘The Apprentice’, the tycoon, the icon, the baron of the real estate market. The 45th president.”