“If I were president this would’ve never happened” why not “if I’d been president”?

It’s a mixed conditional called 2nd to 3rd.

’If I’d been president’ is better English, so you’re right.

Don't try to pick up a language by listening to this fuckstick.

The simplest answer is that it’s Trump and he does not care about proper grammar as this is kind of a mess. The real answer is, as far as I can tell from this sentence fragment, it’s a more grammatical usage than some people would make; a lot of people would use “was.” He’s talking about a hypothetical of something that happened in the past that is affecting events today. “If I were president (when this happened) this war would have never happened.” It’s the subjunctive mood and it’s correct here. “Had been” would also be fine.

This looks like the past subjunctive form to me. Where there is a hypothetical situation querying something that takes place in the past, you use the verb “were”or had + the past particle. So both are correct. There are probably nuanced differences between the two examples though. The first example sounds more hypothetical to my ears.

well he’s not exactly a grammar Nazi

Like many have said don’t model Trump for proper English.

There is a modal difference between the two phrases. “IIf I were president…” alerts the reader that the speaker was not president at the time. It is the beginning of a subjunctive statement. If you had said “if I was president …” it is essentially equivalent to “if I’d been president” without carrying the additional modest proviso that, in fact, I wasn’t president at the time.

He's got a rotten brain, I've no idea why he'd say that. I'm not a prescriptivist, but the man is literally the president. Were is in minority use as it is for conjectural forms like this: I should know, for some reason my dialect has it, so every time I sing "I wish i was the moon tonight" I literally say "I wish I were the moon tonight" because I can't remember to say "was" like 95% of all North Americans.

The person asks a question about the English language and a bunch of boring people come and talk about politics, get over it.

Just don't try to learn English from Trump. Full disclosure, I don't like the guy and didn't vote for him. Nevertheless, I think it's pretty objectively true that he has a child-like command of the English language. I'm totally serious. Do not use his speech to learn English.

a lot of people here seems to accept “were” I’d think “was” would be more appropriate term to use?

Here, he is using a subjunctive, which implies he isn’t the president, which is (unfortunately) false, so it is not something most people would say in this situation.

He very famously has a poor grasp on the english language, it’s best to not use him as an example of anything except how not to speak

He has the vocabulary of a 2-year-old. What were you expecting?

Please don't even think you can learn anything from Trump's verbal diarrhoea.

"If I were" is proper use of the conditional, not often seen in the wild. "If I'd been" is more colloquial. Alas, the average American now would say "if I would have been."

How people speak is very different to how they write. Your brain just filters out the errors, repetition, stutters, run on sentences, etc. I used to do some subtitling and transcription and there is an art to turning natural speech into something readable.

People have already answered your question, but I wanna add something. Trump is a bad example to model proper grammar, he doesn’t speak properly.

We do not look to Donald J Trump as a paragon of English fluency.

Don't take advice from one of the dumbest people on the planet

The man is barely literate; don't take him as an example of correct English.

Do not use trump as a method to learn english. Us Americans can’t even understand him 75% of the time

Both are fine. But its a 2nd conditional so "if I were" works here for reasons unknown.

People are saying it's wrong just because it's Trump. But grammatically speaking, he is correct, though you're less likely to hear anyone younger than 40 talking like this nowadays

"If I were..." introduces a past subjunctive statement. That is, he's referring to a hypothetical past situation, rather than a real one, and so "were" is the appropriate form of the verb here (in standard English). That said, the subjunctive in English barely exists, and so "If I'd been..." is also just as good for conveying the same thing, though it states it as an assertion of fact.

Congratulations, your English proficiency exceeds that of the President of the United States.

I am NOT a Trump supporter in any way, but people saying he's not speaking grammatically correct are just wrong. "If I were" is an example of one of the last remaining cases that the subjunctive is used in English. "If I were ... would ... " is completely correct and acceptable, while a little old fashioned. In spoken from, this often becomes "If I was" (matching the subject to agree with the first person past tense "was") I'm honestly a little shocked that so many people are responding so confidently incorrect on an English learning subreddit ..

People are bringing up the fact that a president is saying this and his, um, characteristics. But this is a good example illustrating that people, especially in everyday life, don't always speak like textbooks. I remember a teacher of mine who was teaching me another language said that TECHNICALLY the correct grammar is X but everyone in her home country mainly just SAYS it Y. It might indicate a specific regional dialect, how casual/formal you are speaking, education, social class, etc. There are plenty of examples where people flout the rules of grammar. A famous example is the use of "they" or "them" for a singular person. Grammatically, in the past, it always indicated plurality. People using grammar in the "wrong" way is one way how languages change over time. Native English speakers, your average speaker on the street, can still have trouble with the past tense of "lie down" etc. Why do people end their sentences with prepositions when technically they shouldn't? And so on.... I don't really remember any good examples, but I know past President Bush was not especially known to be a good orator and would create new words, funny errors, etc. , Bushisms.

Trump can't read and is clearly in cognitive decline. I wouldn't use him to learn English.

This thread is so cringe. I can’t tell you rather “if I were” is technically grammatically correct but I can tell you it is used all the time and no one bats an eye at it. Everyone trying to act like Trump can’t speak English when he’s speaking completely fluid in this example.

Trump generally speaks informally and this is slightly less formal than "If I'd been". It's just preference and situation.

If I were president ( I am not president ), this would have never happened ( this happened ). If I had been president ( I was not president ) this would have never happened ( this happened )

Because "if I'd been president" is correct. That's why not.

"were" is subjunctive, and feels more speculative "had" is a little more definitive Its an extremely subtle difference and they are very nearly the same

whether or not the orange blob knows it, this is an example of the English subjunctive, mostly reserved for conditionals and hypotheticals such as this

Imagine using Donald Trump as an example of proper grammar/english lol

"I'd been" is more appropriate, but "I were" usually gets a pass informally. We've learned not to expect much formality from this guy.

Both are correct. Trump is not someone you should learn English from.

People are saying you shouldnt learn from Trump and he's wrong but believe it not he's actually right here in his usage.  You use "if I were..." in conditional sentences to show things which are contrary to the truth or impossible. It's the subjunctive mood. 

Since he literally is president, saying "if I were president" is wrong. It's "If I *had been*".

Good question! I'd never really thought about it, so I'll take a stab at it! Colloquially, "were" in this context is more about the fact that it is a hypothetical and not about the time the events took place. To a degree, the time of the events is irrelevant. "If I were Emperor of the Galaxy..." "If I were a lottery winner..." "If I were you..." "If I were a colonial British solder..." These are all lead ups to saying what you would hypothetically do if any of those situations. The reference to any particular time period would come from conditional phrasing. "If I were Emperor of the Galaxy...in 500 years..." "If I were a lottery winner...ever..." "If I were you...right now..." "If I were a Colonial British Soldier...200 years ago..." In the case of Trump, he is saying "If I were President...two years ago..." Oftentimes, the time period is left off unless it is unclear or ambiguous. For example, "If I were a Colonial British Soldier..." kind of already implies the time and place this hypothetical takes place in (colonial Britain). But if you are talking about what you would do as a colonial British soldier who is teleported into modern day Korea, it would need to be clarified as "If I were a colonial British soldier teleported to modern-day Korea....I would do XYZ" Hopefully that helps, but I have no idea because I don't usually do this stuff.

You're correct that would make more sense, but what he said is still correct. I'd advise not taking Trump's grammar to heart, he has a very particular style of speaking that is a bit odd, and has for decades.

you shouldn't really learn English from Trump; he frequently uses nonstandard grammar, which might be ridiculed if used in conversations with native speakers.

Trump’s grammar is atrocious. Don’t learn from him.

Trump and Yoda are infamously bad at using proper English. If you copy their unique "grammar", it's obvious you are impersonating them.

Because Trump is not the man to listen to if you want to learn correct English grammar. You're correct that "If I'd been president" would be more accurate here.

The most pleasing correct forms are: "Had I been president," or "Were I president". One doesn't need the "if" here.

Democrats in this sub literally cringe me to the bone. Stop centralizing your political views and act like a normal person can you?

Both work and mean the same thing. People are giving bad answers just because they think Trump is a big meanie

They both work, but the one Trump uses is a bit simpler and more child-y, which kind of fits with his whole "using grade school language" thing.

In formal English, you use “were” for hypotheticals and counterfactuals in the present, and “had been” for them in the past. One way to express future hypotheticals in formal English is, “If I were to” followed by an infinitive. In less-formal English, it’s more common to back-shift for hypotheticals and counterfactuals: “had been” for the past, “was/were” in the present, “am/is/are” in the future. As for why you might hear native speakers do this: You don’t give context here, but presumably he’s talking about some time in the past when he was not President. This might be a kind of hypercorrection. Native speakers in America grow up saying “if I was” and then learn in school to write “if I were.” So he’s making a small mistake by saying “if I were” when that rule does not apply. “If I’d been,” the most common way to say it, is also correct in formal English. Although you don’t care about U.S. politics, also keep in mind that Donald Trump often intentionally speaks much less formally than presidents had previously been expected to.

don't ever, ever, ever listen to or read anything out of the mouth of donald trump and expect any kind of correctness or consistency

It's 2 mixed conditions

Because he's stupid.

Sleepy Don0ld can barely form a finished sentence.

You won't learn anything from him.

Wow. I see Reddit can't stop being Reddit about Trump long enough to answer English questions. Both "If I were president" and "If I'd been president" are fine.

Never use this person as an example of how English should be spoken.

Because he's using the subjunctive mood. In the English subjunctive mood, you change was to were. "If I were better at math, I would be a tutor."

You will probably benefit most from looking up resources on the subjunctive mood in English.

I haven't taken a grammar based English class since high school, so its been a while. There is a common saying "If I were you...". This is the same idea. It's a remnant of English called the Perfect Tense (?). It doesn't really come up anymore, so it's not taught. The only reason I learned about it was because of my Spanish class, where the tense still exists. Technically both are correct, but the way Trump said this is likely going to be phased from existence very soon. Just not something really needed in English, and it creates complicated situations.

Him not talk English too goodly.

It is past subjunctive mood in English. It’s so rarely used most people don’t know it. English has almost eliminated subjunctive entirely.

If he is talking about someone else’s presidency in the past he should have said “if I’d been president.” If this was a video clip from before he was president then “if I were president (now)” is correct.

Subjunctive mood.

Because it's incorrect grammar, although that's the least of the problems here.

Geez can I get an answer every comment in this thread is don't use Trump, which is correct?!?!

Brain syphillis

Because “he no talk good”😁

Stop bringing politics here

This is a dumb thread. In my lifetime there have been presidents who couldn’t pronounce “nuclear,” presidents who misstated the number of U.S. States in existence, presidents who referenced the famous airfields of the American Revolution, presidents who mixed up the key leaders on opposite sides of a major geopolitical conflict, and presidents who weren’t sure what “is” meant. People make mistakes when they’re talking. They say things incorrectly. Sometimes they even -gasp- lie. People who speak to the media frequently are more likely to have those mistakes heard by other people. Let’s be honest, most of you aren’t here for English learning reasons at this point lol