Trump is mad the media didn't like him swearing during the campaign

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump slammed the media on Monday for their stuffy reaction to his use of profanity during the 2016 presidential campaign. "Every once in a while, if it was in a rambunctious stadium or something, I'd say, 'What the hell do you have to lose?'" Trump recalled at a roundtable in Hialeah, Florida. "And I get criticized by those people," he added, pointing at the media. The president went on to say that while he would "get criticized for using the word 'hell,' I'd say, 'I've heard a heck of a lot worse than that.'"

Trump's affinity for profanity certainly hasn't gone unnoticed, with The New Yorker observing that "Trump repeatedly told supporters that, once in office, he would 'bomb the s--t' out of ISIS, possibly the first occasion on which one of [George] Carlin's seven words had been incorporated into a campaign policy position." Time noted that "research has shown that Trump's use of swear words could be strategic, helping his image as a truthteller unafraid of being politically incorrect."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.