BURSTPresident Trump dropped an f-bomb on live television at the White House on Tuesday while addressing the fragile detente between Israel and Iran after the rivals appeared to waffle on their temporary truce.
"We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f‑‑‑ they're doing," Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a NATO summit at The Hauge.
The remarks came just hours after Trump announced Monday evening that a ceasefire had been brokered between Israel and Tehran, following U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend.
It wasn't Trump's first public deployment of the f-bomb, and he's not the first president to use coarse language, but the intentional utterance while speaking to White House reporters with cameras rolling did make its mark.
It has been played — many times uncensored — on network television and reposted across social media.
"Sometimes the best bomb to drop is the ‘F’ bomb. Everyone knows how you truly feel," Gen. Michael Flynn, who had a short stint as national security adviser during Trump's first term, posted on X.
"I want him to speak to Congress that way. 'Do your f#ing job!!!'" Flynn added in a follow-up post.
Others, meanwhile, questioned Trump's tact and blasted it as a flouting of presidential norms.
Campaign words ...
While campaigning in Alaska in 2022, Trump recalled speaking with a soldier (likely Dan "Razin" Caine, now the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) about ways to take down the Islamic extremist group ISIS.
Trump quoted what the soldier told him, drawing laughs and applause from the rally crowd: "Sir, I'd hit him on the left; I'd hit him on the right. I'd hit him in the f‑‑‑ing center, sir. Right smack."
A few months later, while addressing the California Republican Party, Trump used the obscenity as part of an insult lobbed at then-President Biden.
"Let’s indict the motherf‑‑‑er," he said, again winning cheers from the crowd.
Oval Office oops...
During his first presidency, Trump was unintentionally caught using the f-word on a hot mic just before an Oval Office address about the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020.
"Oh f‑‑‑," Trump said, apparently noticing a stain on his shirt before going live to address the nation. "I've got a pen mark."
His predecessors said it too ...
Biden, while vice president, was caught dropping the f-bomb on a hot mic during a signing ceremony for then-President Obama's signature Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare.
"This is a big f‑‑‑ing deal," Biden said, leaning toward Obama. The two joked about the incident a decade later after Biden became president.
Other previous presidents also have been known to use salty language, often facing criticism for the remarks.
Obama drew backlash after he referred to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a "bulls‑‑‑ter" in an interview with Rolling Stone during the 2012 campaign.