Tradition dictates short and “sticky” names to facilitate communication in case of emergency
MADRID, 23 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
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 and became another part of the mystique that It 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: the Spanish actor Antonio Banderas received the code name of ‘Zorro’, in honor of his films about the Mexican hero.
For this occasion, the newspapers ‘New York Post’ and the ‘Daily Mail’ published the names used during the campaign by the then Republican candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency, Donald Trump and JD Vance, known respectively as ‘Mogul’ (Magnate). and ‘Bobcat’ (‘Wildcat’), identifiers, like all previous ones, 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.
In reality 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 received by 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 received the nickname ‘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 regained importance in public opinion when President Barack Obama’s nickname became known: ‘Renegade’. His wife and first lady, Michelle, was named ‘Renaissance’. Trump received the name ‘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 Harris, code name ‘Pioneer’, but it is unknown if he will keep it in January, when he will once again occupy the ‘ Castillo’, 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 British Air Force’s favorite fighter planes in World War II). His son and current British monarch, Charles III of England, is known as ‘Unicorn’, as detailed by former agent Joseph Petro in his book ‘Next to History: Life of a Secret Service Agent’.