Language, Please!

If President Donald Trump had a pet parrot, it wouldn’t pick up as many obscenities as that of its 19th-century predecessor, President Andrew Jackson’s feathered friend “Poll.” Trump has nothing on his favorite president (other than himself) when it comes to cussing.

Newsweek readers were tetchy about the latest foul-mouthed bout from Trump, who was speaking at a midterm rally at Butler High School in Vandalia, Ohio, this month. “Just get out and vote,” he said. “If you do...we’re going to win big! And we’re going to shove it up their ass, OK.”

But the seventh president was reportedly much worse than the 47th when it comes to potty talk. Jackson’s parrot picked up so much foul language, it was said that the bird had to be removed from the house at Jackson’s funeral in 1845. Meanwhile, Democrats and the left are confusing Trump’s language with concerns about the “dignity of office” (two very different things); and swearing has become a cheat code for politicians to suggest they are not really politicians at all.

“Such a fine example of how a POTUS should act and talk,” said one comment on the report of Trump in Ohio. “Thirty years ago Christians were appalled by [President] Bill Clinton’s behavior,” said another. “Amazing how much they have lowered the bar on morals and family values.”

“MAGA likes it, yet decent Americans are turned off—and embarrassed—by such UNpresidential displays,” summed up the general tone of disapproval. Classic confirmation bias. If you wanted to argue that Trump has demeaned his office, there is no shortage of supporting material. But presidents swearing? If anything, Trump is not even in the top division.

The majority of readers who voted on the article’s fairness (46 percent) said it “leans right” (12 percent said “leans left”), which suggests only an outright condemnation would have been enough to satisfy those who hate him. But President Joe Biden was caught open mic saying the Affordable Care Act signing was “a big f***ing deal” in 2010, and in 2022 he called a Fox News reporter a “stupid son of a b****.” President Richard Nixon and President Lyndon B. Johnson were famously sweary in private, and LBJ was caught telling the Greek ambassador “f*** your parliament” in 1964. Even the saintly President Jimmy Carter said, of Senator Ted Kennedy, he would “whip his ass” if he ran against him in 1980.

More recently, bad language has become a verbal trick politicians use to show us they are “real” and “authentic” in a culture where nobody wants to be associated with the establishment, imagined or otherwise.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (who has somehow fallen into office straight from a 1980s teen comedy in which he played the school jerk) love to portray themselves as insurgents, hence the “sh**” here and “ass” there, but Democrats are willing to stress their normalcy too, with cursing being a shortcut to connect with disaffected voters. Last October, former Vice President Kamala Harris condemned her political opponents by saying “these mother******* are crazy.” A month later, Senator Chuck Schumer said the Trump administration cannot “f*** around” over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. All very edgy.

The last bad word falls to that paragon of dignity, President George W. Bush. During the 2000 election campaign, he was overheard calling a journalist a “major-league asshole.” W. later expressed “regret” at the remark. How unpresidential.