The assignment of a code name to the political leaders of the United States by the Secret Service – or the White House Communications Agency – ceased to be classified information decades ago to become another part of the mystique that surrounds the US Administration (like the briefcase that carries the keys to nuclear weapons, the ‘soccer ball’).
However, and especially during the electoral period, the media slips the nicknames assigned to both the president, the first lady, members of the cabinet and even prominent personalities: Spanish actor Antonio Banderas was given the code name ‘Zorro’in honor of his films about the Mexican hero.
For this occasion, the newspapers ‘New York Post’ and the ‘Daily Mail’ disclosed the names used during the campaign for then-Republican candidates for President and Vice President, Donald Trump and JD Vance, known respectively as ‘Mogul’ (Tycoon) and ‘Bobcat’ (‘Wildcat’)identifiers, like all precedents, linked to the personal lives of the people that the Secret Service is going to protect. To Trump, for his role as a businessman, and to Vance for being born in Ohio, where the wildcat is one of the state’s native animals.
Actually There are almost no preconditions for his appointment. They must be brief, to facilitate communication between members of the security device, and begin with the same letter for all members of the family of the protected persons in question.
The first known nickname for a president of the United States is ‘General’ and was given to Harry Truman. (1945-1953), at the beginning of a tradition continued by his successors: John F. Kennedy was codenamed ‘Lancer’ (‘Lancer’, an allusion to the Arthurian legend of Camelot that his administration intended to make), while Ronald Reagan was nicknamed ‘Rawhide’the cowboy series starring Clint Eastwood decades earlier and that honored the president’s acting past, a figure of the ‘western’ in his younger years.
In recent times, this tradition once again gained importance in public opinion when it became known President Barack Obama’s nickname: ‘Renegade’ (‘Renegade’). His wife and first lady, Michelle, was named after ‘Renaissance’. Trump was named after ‘Tycoon’ as soon as he assumed his succession. His wife, Melania, received the designation ‘Muse’.
For now, Trump maintains his nickname after his November victory against the country’s outgoing vice president, Kamala Harriscode name ‘Pioneer’ (‘Pioneer’) but it is unknown if he will keep it in January, when he will once again occupy the ‘Castle’, as the Secret Service knows the White House.
Politicians aren’t the only ones the Secret Service has given code names to. Frank Sinatra, a close friend of John F. Kennedy, had his own code name, ‘Napoleon’. Pope John Paul II was ‘Halo’, and Queen Elizabeth II of England was known as ‘Kittyhawk’ (one of the favorite fighter aircraft of the British Air Force in World War II). His son and current British monarch, Charles III of England, is known as ‘Unicorn’ (‘Unicorn’), as detailed by former agent Joseph Petro in his book ‘On the side of history: life of a Secret Service agent’.
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