 "US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House. It is during this interaction that he dropped the F-bomb. AP")
What does one do when one is frustrated? Usually, one swears or curses, using the F-word. But what if you are the president of the United States of America? Well, Donald Trump on Tuesday showed he’s no different from us when he too used the swear word to express his frustration that Israel and Iran appeared to be violating the ceasefire that he just celebrated going into effect.
But, despite the hoopla over Trump swearing on live camera, it is not unheard of. There have been many instances of the US commander-in-chief showcasing their inner potty mouth.
Trump’s F-bomb heard around the world
The world’s media dedicated much of Tuesday (June 24) covering the ceasefire in the war between Israel and Iran and Donald Trump’s role in brokering it.
But before Trump could even celebrate the breakthrough, Israel and Iran appeared to have violated it. Just two-and-a-half hours after the ceasefire came into effect, Tel Aviv accused Tehran of launching missiles at the Jewish nation. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had directed Israel’s armed forces to “respond forcefully” to what he called Iran’s “violation of the ceasefire”.
And when asked to respond to the two warring nations’ actions, Trump appeared agitated.
“There was one rocket that I guess was fired overboard after the time limit and now Israel is going out. These guys [have] got to calm down,” he said, speaking to reporters before heading to the Nato summit in The Hague. The US president added that he didn’t like “plenty of things” he saw.
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View All“I didn’t like the fact that Israel unloaded right after we made the deal,” he said, referring to the ceasefire he announced earlier. “They didn’t have to unload.”
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing,” Trump added, dropping the f-bomb .
Presidential hot-mic moments
Trump’s use of a swear word on live cameras surprised many; American presidents have typically refrained from using it publicly, even when angry or frustrated.
But it isn’t the first time that an American president has been caught swearing. In 2018, Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as “s**thole countries”, asking why the US would accept more immigrants from there rather than places like Norway. Unsurprisingly, his remarks spurred anger; Haiti‘s government said Trump’s comments shows a “racist view of the Haitian community”, while El Salvador sent a formal letter of protest to the US saying the president had “implicitly” accepted the use of “harsh terms detrimental to the dignity of El Salvador and other countries”.
In March 2010, then Vice President Joe Biden was caught out by an amplified microphone, telling his boss, Barack Obama, that passing the Affordable Care Act was a “big f***ing deal”.
And 12 years after that incident, Biden once again let it rip when he called Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a b**ch.” The incident when happened Doocy called out to Biden saying, “Do you think inflation is a political liability going into the midterms?”
“No, it’s a great asset,” Biden snarked. “More inflation. What a stupid son of a b**ch.”
Later, Doocy said that President Biden called to apologise shortly after the briefing ended.
And Biden’s predecessor, Barack Obama, too had his own hot-mic moments. In 2009, he referred to rapper Kanye West as a “jacka**” after the rapper interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Obama also referred to his 2012 presidential rival, Mitt Romney as a “serial bullshi***r” in a Rolling Stone magazine.
And just like Biden and Obama, George W Bush also had a hot-mic moment. While campaigning to be president in 2000, Bush leaned over to his running mate, Dick Cheney, and commented on the presence of New York Times reporter Adam Clymer. He, unknowingly, called the journalist a “major-league a**hole.”
Bush later joked about the incident, referring to Clymer as a “major-league ass…et” in a taped message played at a press corps dinner.
But many believe that no other US president cursed and swore as much as Harry Truman. He once called General Douglas MacArthur a “dumb son of a b**ch” and Richard Nixon a “shifty-eyed god***ed liar.”
In most of these cases, the US leader has apologised for abusing. But, Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, told NPR that it is highly unlikely that Trump would show any remorse for his use of the swear word. “The question is whether you brazen it out or you apologise,” Riley said. “And I’m sure in this case the president will just brazen it out.”
With inputs from agencies