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This is the plan of the United States' new president, Donald Trump.

I have seen sentences like the above both with and without that comma after "president". Which is the right way to write it?

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    Unless there is more than one new president of the United States (and you need to resolve the ambiguity of multiple new presidents), leave the comma there.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 6:57
  • Possible duplicate of The use or omission of commas round relative clauses
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 7:00
  • This is a matter of style. The relevant style guide should be referred to for a ruling. Different style guides may give different guidance.
    – jwpfox
    Commented Nov 24, 2020 at 20:57

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The comma is necessary. Otherwise you are talking about a single entity/noun 'president Donald Trump'. By way of clarification, the plural of this noun would be 'president Donald Trumps'. In contrast, what is actually meant is 'the president who is Donald Trump'.

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