A short ****ing history of presidential swearing

On Tuesday, President Trump dropped a bomb – not a bunker-buster but the F-bomb. Talking to the press about Israel and Iran, he said, “We have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”

There is a lot to say about this statement – starting with the implied moral equivalence between the two countries. But let’s focus on the F-bomb. Has a president ever before used this word in public? Used it deliberately, in a public statement? Trump seems to have recorded a first.

Plenty of presidents have had salty tongues. You may know a story about Harry and Bess Truman. It is quaint now. There are several versions of this story, but, essentially, it goes like this.

Mr. Truman was giving a talk to a ladies’ luncheon about horticulture. He repeatedly used the word “manure.” A friend of Mrs. Truman’s leaned over to her and whispered, “Couldn’t you get him to say ‘fertilizer’?” Mrs. Truman answered, “You have no idea how long it has taken me to get him to say ‘manure.’”

Speaking of the S-word: I once heard a charming story from Tom Foley, the late speaker of the House. When he was a young congressman, he got a call from President Johnson. But the president had intended to reach somebody else. When he realized the mistake, he said, “Shit.” But this was not a short, sharp word. Johnson drew it out, in a Texas drawl. As Foley imitated Johnson, all those years later, the word had about four vowels in it.

Lyndon Johnson was one of the earthiest presidents we ever had. How about his successor, Richard Nixon? I have a story of my own.

When I was in graduate school – mid-1980s – Stephen Ambrose, the historian, came to talk to some of us students. He was working on his biography of Nixon (three volumes). He told us something interesting about Nixon and profanity.

The Watergate transcripts were dotted with a soon-famous indication: “[expletive deleted].” People got the impression that Nixon was incredibly foul-mouthed. But when you listen to the tapes, said Ambrose, you discover that most of these expletives are of the “hell” and “damn” variety.

Ambrose’s theory was: “Nixon must have told his secretary, ‘Take out the rough stuff, Rose.’” And the lady had her own standards of propriety. (“Rose” was Rose Mary Woods, notorious for the “18-minute gap” on one of the tapes.)

Gerald Ford was not much of a swearer, evidently. But his vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, did his part by flipping off a group of student hecklers at a campaign stop.

“If he runs, I’ll whip his ass,” President Carter said. He was referring to Senator Ted Kennedy, who was thinking about challenging him for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination. (Kennedy wound up doing it and losing.) Carter made the remark privately to congressmen – but it duly leaked.

Later, in his memoirs, Carter wrote, “Some of my staff members said it was the best thing for morale around the White House since the Willie Nelson concert.”

President Reagan was not known for vulgarity – but there is one story. In October 1981, the Senate narrowly approved the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia. (These are surveillance planes.) Reagan had lobbied hard for the sale. Once it was approved, he said to those around him, “I feel like I’ve just shit a pineapple.”

His vice president was George Bush – who would succeed him as president. Before that happened, however, they had to be reelected in 1984. The vice-presidential debate was between Bush and Geraldine Ferraro. The day after, Bush said to some supporters on the campaign trail, “We kicked a little ass last night.”

He did not intend for anyone else to overhear the remark. But it was caught on a “hot mic.”

His son, the 43rd president, would have his own hot-mic moment. Surveying the crowd at a 2000 campaign stop, George W. Bush said to his running mate, “There’s Adam Clymer, major-league asshole from the New York Times.” His running mate, Dick Cheney, responded, “Oh, yeah, he is: big-time.”

In short order, Bush conferred a nickname on Cheney: “Big-Time.”

During their reelection year of 2004, Cheney dropped an F-bomb on a US senator, right on the Senate floor. The senator was Pat Leahy, who, in prior days, had accused Cheney of nefarious behavior in the Iraq War. When Leahy approached Cheney, the vice president said, “Go fuck yourself.”

In January 2009, shortly before he and Bush left office, Cheney met with a group of us journalists. The subject of his clash with Leahy came up. Cheney stressed that the Senate was not in session at the time. Yes, the clash took place on the Senate floor – but only because everyone had gathered for a “class picture.”

Cheney also stressed that his relations with Leahy were later harmonious.

Did President Obama swear? Well, he referred to Mitt Romney as a “bullshitter.” And his vice president had a famous hot-mic moment. When the administration’s healthcare overhaul was passed, Joe Biden said to Obama, “This is a big fucking deal.” (It was, too.)

In early 2022, when Biden was president, a reporter called out to him, “Do you think inflation is a political liability going into the midterms?” Biden didn’t answer. Instead, he muttered to himself – and into a hot mic: “No, it’s a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son-of-a-bitch.”

We will end where we began – with the incumbent president, Trump. In 2016, when he first ran, he pledged to build a wall along the southwestern border and make Mexico pay for it. In Mexico, an ex-president, Vicente Fox, said, with fuming indignation, “We’ll never pay for that fucking wall.”

Trump, commenting on Fox’s statement, said, “This guy used a filthy, disgusting word on television and he should be ashamed of himself and he should apologize, OK?”

OK…