United States President, Donald Trump, using the word “Fuck” when speaking to reporters wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card. I mean a lot of things that have happened in 2025 weren’t on my bingo card, but honestly, this one caught me off guard. Perhaps it was because maybe I thought he already had dropped an f-bomb on national television, or during a debate (both clearly not reality). Or perhaps it was because I’ve seen him quoted as saying it, but have never actually seen it live. Or perhaps it’s just because it seemed kind of in character to be honest. I think I’m just surprised it hadn’t already happened. The man has really held back all this time?
I think we all have to admit, there is something kind of comical when the president of a leading world power drops the word “fuck” when they’re talking to reporters, and even moreso when referring to one of their closest of allies.
“You know what? We basically have two countries, that have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” – Donald Trump
When I first saw the clip, I was genuinely surprised. I actually didn’t even believe it was real at first, given that we’ve seen so much high-quality AI content recently. And so, I checked the Globe and Mail app, and there we go, front page big beautiful words: Trump Uses Profanity Against Iran and Israel Over Ceasefire Violations.
I think a well-timed use of fuck is poetic, smooth, and gets to the point. But politicians using profanity is generally not the norm. Is it funny? Yes. Is it appropriate? Probably not. Do I care? Not at all.
I think at some point in time, every politician wishes they could swear, I think a one-f-bomb a year would be good, maybe one a term? Can we all agree on that? After all, in PG-13 movies you’re allowed one, and those are only a couple hours long at max.
Also, there are other instances of politicians and presidents swearing, do we not remember Biden calling a Fox News reporter a “stupid son of a bitch” (CNN)? Which is again, arguably funny. Should he have said it? No, probably not. But we do have to remember that politicians are also regular people at the end of the day, who most definitely swear on the regular, if not to other people, then at least to themselves. Even then, some non-verbal communication can certainly replace swearing too.
I’ve always had an interest in the usage of profanity in media and politics. Why is F*ck better than Fuck? We know what word it is, does adding an asterisk really make it less jarring? Is the bleeping of F-bombs truly necessary? I would argue no, but I would also argue that the bleeping can sometimes make things even funnier.
The point is, I find it interesting that this is an area that we haven’t seen change too much over the years. Politicians generally don’t swear. Are we to now expect that politicians will begin to swear as Trump has opened the floodgates?
There are of course other incidents in Canadian politics that we can look back on, including Doug Ford, being caught saying of Donald Trump “the guy pulled out the knife and fucking yanked it into us,” during trade disputes with the United States (The Guardian). Another two examples include both Trudeau Prime Ministers having sworn. While the older Trudeau, may have mouthed either “fuck off” or “Fuddle Duddle,” I suppose we’ll never know (CBC). But we do know that the younger Trudeau did in fact swear at least a couple of times pre his role as Prime Minister. Once during a boxing match expressed that when you’re in the ring when it comes to your status in life: “none of that fucking matters” (CBC). There are also a couple other instances were he allegedly used the word fuck as well, including during “elbowgate” (CBC). Another (I would argue fairly comical moment) is when many years after having been Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien admitted to having sworn in front of the Queen, saying the French curse “merde” when his pen didn’t work while signing the Proclamation of the Constitution Act of 1982 (CBC). The word “merde” being the equivalent to English’s “shit.”
If we do come back to Donald Trump for a moment, I will say he did in fact call countries he didn’t like “shithole countries” during his previous presidential campaign (CNN).
I think my point is while it is rare for politicians to swear, and moreso rare for them to use the f-bomb, it does happen as you can see with some of my examples. As an outside viewer I find some of these instances fairly funny in all honestly, but if it becomes all too common, then I believe we would stop finding it funny, and find it even more offensive than anything else.
So, let’s see if Trump can stick to his one per term, and maybe we can have Mark Carney drop one too…
Comedy Communications 