With More Democratic Politicians Cursing Up a Storm, 2028 Looms as the Year of the Dump Button

Goodness, gracious. An increasing number of Democrats, while criticizing President Trump’s use of profanity, are swearing like drunken sailors. It’s an indication that they don’t intend to restore the decorum that they accuse the president of upending. Instead, they’re cursing blue streaks in hopes of replicating his appeal.“Shit is expensive,” Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan wrote in social media posts on Tuesday, with a video of her with the ribald word obscured. Another potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, Governor Gavin Newsom of California, has debuted his political potty mouth, too.Mr. Newsom’s interview on “The Shawn Ryan Show” in July earned an “explicit” rating on iTunes. He used a version of “fuck” 42 times and of “shit” 60 times. When President George H. W. Bush used “Goddamn” during the 1988 campaign, he apologized for “taking the Lord’s name in vain.” Mr. Newsom said it 61 times and “Jesus Christ” 10 times. Without apology.“Go fuck yourself,” Mr. Newsom told Louisiana’s attorney general, Elizabeth Murrill, in February. At February’s California Democratic convention, Congresswoman Katherine “Katie” Porter, running to succeed Mr. Newsom, led a chant of “Fuck Trump!” Senator Adam Schiff said that “when you poke the bear,” the state’s mascot, “the bear rips your fucking head off.”Mayor Jacob Frey in January told ICE to “get the fuck out” of Minneapolis. New Jersey Democrats have introduced the “Fight Unlawful Conduct and Keep Individuals and Communities Empowered (FUCK) ICE Act.” On Monday, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove repeated an earlier remark about Mr. Trump: “Fuck his ass!”Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett reacted to Mr. Trump’s 2025 address to Congress by saying “wake me the fuck up” and Senate Democrats posted videos listing “shit” he’d said “that ain’t true.” In February, Congresswoman Maxine Dexter of Oregon used the “fuck Trump” slogan, which is emblazoned on partisan merchandise.Officeholders used to be caught cursing only when they slipped. “If you fuck around with us,” Mr. Trump said in 2020 when this columnist’s then host, Rush Limbaugh, asked his message to Iran, “we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.” An engineer hit the dump button to stop it going live, avoiding the FCC’s wrath.In 1983’s “A Christmas Story,” set in 1940, Ralphie Parker says that his father “worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay.” Upon repeating the F-word, Ralphie’s mother washes his mouth out with soap; pre-printed signs at “Power to the Polls” rallies in 2018 suggested such a punishment for Mr. Trump.President Jackson’s parrot was ejected from his funeral because it picked up vulgarities from Old Hickory like Ralphie did from “the Old Man.” President Lyndon Johnnson’s foul mouth was infamous. Presidents George W. Bush, Obama, and Biden made headlines when caught on hot mics.Today, profanity isn’t the stuff of private anecdotes or fits of pique. A Democratic adviser, Elisabeth “Lis” Smith, told Politico in March 2025 that “some of it is people trying to seem faux-edgy authentic.” But “if the first time you’ve used a cuss word in public is reading off a script, it’s probably not authentic and not something you should do.”Another Democratic operative, Caitlin Legacki, told Politico that “you can’t overdo” cursing or “force it” or it’s “not authentic.” In remarks to Hour Detroit in 2011, Bill Cosby called profanity “a security blanket, because you know the audience is going to laugh” at dirty words. His advice to comics applies to politicians: Have “style” and “material” instead.Voters may embrace candidates who curse blue streaks or want to wash their mouths out with soap. Yet the political establishment that ridiculed coarse language from Mr. Trump has come to embrace it. Viewer discretion is now advised when listening to candidates — and engineers are wise to keep their fingers poised on that blasted dump button.

With More Democratic Politicians Cursing Up a Storm, 2028 Looms as the Year of the Dump Button

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