Breaking another presidential norm, Trump drops the f-bomb on camera

 President Trump on Tuesday emphatically dropped an f-bomb, on camera, expressing frustration that Israel and Iran appeared to be violating the ceasefire that he just celebrated going into effect.

"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 said to reporters as he left the White House.

More than any other president, Trump has been known to use coarse language in speeches and other public appearances. But even for him, this on-camera utterance of the f-word was new. American presidents have typically refrained from using it publicly, even when angry or frustrated.

"Politics is sometimes a dirty and ugly business, and so people use language there that might be better preserved in the locker room — but in no instance do I recall a president openly using this term in a public forum," said Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

But in a way, it wasn't surprising at all, Riley said.

"This is a president that has seldom felt bound by the normal constraints of the office, and the use of profanity is typically one of those constraints," said Riley. Especially this particular curse word.

Riley has heard that word come out of the mouths of former White House staff plenty over the years in his role as co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center. Staff often curse, and he said a number of presidents have been known to use expletives behind closed doors.

There have even been a handful of instances of cursing caught on a hot mic, when an official didn't know they were being recorded. But this — an f-bomb used deliberately, on camera — was new.

There have been hot-mic f-bomb moments

When then-Vice President Joe Biden told President Barack Obama that passing the Affordable Care Act was a "big f***ing deal" in front of an amplified microphone, it became a big deal.

It quickly turned from a scandal to something Democrats joked about in fundraising appeals and became something of a calling card for Biden.

Biden was caught again on a hot mic while surveying hurricane damage in 2022, saying "no one f***s with a Biden." But his back was to the cameras.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was also caught cursing on a hot mic, at least once.

In private, presidents Harding, Grant, Truman, Johnson and especially Nixon were known to curse, Riley said. And one time, even President Jimmy Carter dropped the f-bomb.

"He was under an enormous amount of pressure," Riley said, recounting how Carter was weighing whether to let Iran's Shah come the United States for medical care. "He just broke at one point and said, 'F the Shah,'" Riley said.

In past cases, some presidents have felt compelled to show contrition when curse words made headlines. But Riley said that's unlikely to happen with Trump, known and loved by his supporters for his plain-spoken ways.

"The question is whether you brazen it out or you apologize," Riley said. "And I'm sure in this case, the president will just brazen it out."

Donald Trump's f-bomb is one missile that could sway Benjamin Netanyahu

The world is rarely left wondering what Donald Trump thinks.

It might be confounded by the tone, but most of the time his unique turn of phrase expresses a blunt assessment of what's happening in the world and who he likes or doesn't like at any one time.

And so, in his first comments since the alleged ceasefire between Israel and Iran was announced, the US president let rip.

"You know what, 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," he told reporters at the White House.

"Do you understand that?"

Yes, Mr President. But more importantly, so did Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump had, of course, said that he was "not happy" with both Israel and Iran in his commentary.

"Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped the load of bombs the likes of which I've never seen before — the biggest load that we've seen," he said.

"When I say, 'OK, now you have 12 hours,' you don't go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them.

"So I'm not happy with them. I'm not happy with Iran either. But I'm really unhappy if Israel's going out this morning, because the one rocket that didn't land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn't land."

That sort of commentary isn't going to anger the Iranian regime. It already sees the United States as one of its most staunch enemies.

The president's most stinging criticism was aimed at his country's closest Middle East ally, and it shows how the Trump-Netanyahu relationship is fraying.

And the prime minister was clearly listening.

His military's fast and furious response to claims Iranian missiles had been detected and intercepted in northern Israel, hours after the ceasefire came into force, was to deploy fighter jets to the skies of Tehran for what Israel's defence minister described as "intense strikes".

Shortly after Trump's spicy intervention, Netanyahu revealed what the mission had achieved.

"In response to Iran's violations, the Air Force destroyed a radar installation near Tehran," his office said in a statement.

"Pursuant to the conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has refrained from additional attacks.

"In the conversation, President Trump expressed his great appreciation for Israel, which achieved all of its objectives for the war, as well as his confidence in the stability of the ceasefire."

Due deference and fawning returned.

However, Donald Trump had a different way of describing what had just happened.

"ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran," he posted on his Truth Social platform.

"All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly 'Plane Wave' to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!

"Thank you for your attention to this matter!"