In a widely publicized statement, a group of CEO's on President Trump's "Strategic and Policy Forum" wrote that because of contention surrounding recent statements by the president:
As such, the President and we are disbanding the forum
A question was asked a while ago:
“Bob and us” or “Bob and we” or “Bob and ourselves”?
To avoid using the phrase "Sarah and we are going to build an aircraft," multiple suggestions were offered:
- We are going to build an aircraft with Sarah.
- Sarah is going to build an aircraft with us.
- We and Sarah are going to build an aircraft.
- Sarah and us are going to build an aircraft.
- Us and Sarah are going to build an aircraft.
- Sarah and the rest of us are going to build an aircraft.
These suggestions all seem appropriate when discussing an action that is performed together with the group designated by the pronoun "we" along with "Sarah" in unison. However, it seems to me that in this case the decision to disband the organization was made separately, and for different reasons, by the President and by the Forum members.
I assume the writer who drafted the statement was emphasizing that We made this decision, while also acknowledging that the President had made a decision separately to disband the group. Perhaps the writers could have chosen the phrase:
The President is and we are disbanding the Forum.
At the same time, I see no reason why the statement as is would be grammatically "incorrect," even though it sounds awkward.
Assuming the intent is to express that the decision was made independently by the President and by the Forum members, is it correct to write "the president and we are?" Would it also be acceptable to write "The president is and we are?" And if so, would this change the message?
