Is Donald Trump the former President as cited in this article below or is he the current President? https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/trump-rubio-sneaking-money-equatorial-guinea-35b652

Executive summary — Clear answer up front: As of the current date, November 11, 2025, Donald J. Trump is the current President of the United States according to sources documenting a second term that began January 20, 2025; therefore an article labeling him the “former President” is inconsistent with that status ^{[1] [2]}. The factually.co piece you linked refers to actions taken during the “Trump administration” and in places calls him “former President,” which creates a factual mismatch with contemporaneous records showing he holds office in 2025; this mismatch most likely reflects either an editorial framing choice or use of older material rather than an accurate description of his present title ^{[3] [4]}.

1. Why two very different labels appear — authoritative records versus the article’s wording

Contemporary reference works and widely used public records list Donald Trump as both the 45th and 47th President, with a second term beginning January 20, 2025; those entries present him as the current officeholder as of November 11, 2025 ^{[1] [2]}. The factually.co article and several analyses of it use phrasing such as “former President” and “the Trump administration” while discussing decisions attributed to his tenure; that language is internally consistent with describing historical actions taken while he previously held office, yet it conflicts with present-tense status if the person is again serving. The tension arises because the article mixes retrospective description of events with present-tense identifiers, producing an appearance of contradiction ^{[3] [4]}.

2. What the article and secondary analyses actually claim about events — and why wording matters

The factually.co report addresses a payment tied to Equatorial Guinea and frames the action as something associated with the Trump administration; several supporting analyses and news outlets likewise described the $7.5 million payment as executed under Trump-era policy decisions ^{[4] [5]}. Calling Trump “former President” in that narrative emphasizes that the payment is a past-administration decision rather than a current-administration policy, but that phrasing becomes misleading if the subject has returned to office. In short, the article’s substantive claim about the payment can stand apart from the label applied to Trump, but the label matters for readers trying to reconcile chronology and current governance ^{[3] [4]}.

3. How timeline and publication dates create confusion — check the timestamp

Some of the materials used in analyses date to earlier years (one source explicitly from 2019), and the mix of historical reporting with later summaries can produce inconsistent descriptors like “former” versus “current” ^[6]. One of the analyses also flagged content purporting to describe a 2024 landslide as unverified, underscoring the need to vet the publication date and editorial update history on the article itself ^[7]. When a news or fact-check piece discusses actions across administrations, writers sometimes default to “former President” when describing past actions even if the person has since returned to office; that editorial shorthand is the most likely proximate cause of the inconsistency you observed ^{[3] [8]}.

4. Which sources to treat as decisive and what might be driving editorial choices

Public records and major reference pages that log presidencies by inauguration dates are the clearest, quickly verifiable way to determine whether someone is currently serving, and those records indicate Trump is the incumbent as of the date you cite ^{[1] [2]}. The factually.co article is a secondary piece focused on a specific claim; if it uses “former President” while discussing past administration actions, the label may reflect a focus on the historical period rather than the current status. Readers should note potential editorial agendas: outlets emphasizing accountability for past actions may prefer language that distances present officeholders, while partisan sources may use labels strategically ^{[3] [7]}.

5. Bottom line and practical next steps for verification

Bottom line: as of November 11, 2025, Donald Trump is the current U.S. President under the documented second term beginning January 20, 2025, so the article’s characterization of him as “former President” is inconsistent with that status ^{[1] [2]}. To resolve the discrepancy, check the factually.co article’s publication and update timestamps and compare with primary sources such as the official White House site or archived inauguration records; if the article was written before January 20, 2025 or republished without updating biographical labels, that explains the mismatch. When assessing such pieces, prioritize contemporaneous official records for titles and use the article for its factual claims about policy actions, not for up-to-the-minute status unless its dateline is explicit ^{[3] [7]}.