POTUS (n.)

wire service acronym for president of the United States (or President of the United States). It is a survival from the Phillips Code, created 1879 by U.S. journalist Walter P. Phillips to speed up (and save money on) Morse code transmissions but obsolete from c. 1940 with the widespread use of teletype machines. The AP still uses it in wire slugs and it is affected occasionally by those seeking to establish journalistic credibility. Other Phillips Code survivals include SCOTUS for "Supreme Court of the United States."