Pressure on EU countries over NATO spending
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Irish Times
29-06-2025
- Irish Times
Trump's F-bomb: The US didn't faint when the president swore on live TV. How unexpectedly unprissy of it
There was a dog that didn't bark amid this week's news. On Tuesday President Trump became (we think) the first US president to say the word 'f**k' on live TV. This column was prepared to fulminate on how, 'with all that's going on in the world', the American media took to the fainting couch over a harmless nugget of 16th-century Germanic profanity. It says something about how Trump has rewired the American mind that the response was relatively muted. There is no lower form of speculative discourse than 'can you imagine if [X] had done that?' but, well, can you imagine if Barack Obama had said such a thing? The closest we can find is him using the word 'bullsh***er' – apparently of Mitt Romney – during a 2012 print interview in the White House. Rolling Stone magazine argued that the incident set off a 'brief firestorm'. Obama was in jocular form there. That is quite different from addressing a serious policy issue on the White House lawn. 'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f**k they're doing,' Trump said of Iran and Israel over the throb of helicopters. [ Is Donald Trump the greatest media performer of the 21st century? Opens in new window ] Everyone knows presidents have employed maritime vocabulary since the founding of the nation. 'People said my language was bad,' Richard Nixon once remarked. 'But, Jesus, you should have heard LBJ.' They have, however, almost always returned to 'fudge!' and 'fiddlesticks!' when in earshot of a microphone. READ MORE Different nations have different sensibilities. Publications within those jurisdictions work along a spectrum of sensitivity. You will have already noticed that The Irish Times still plays it safe by studding asterisks among the most common bar-room expletives. 'Style is, for example, f**k,' the paper's stylebook helpfully explains. This is not just prudishness. Newspapers tend to avoid swearing in web headlines – even with asterisks – as this can cause search engines to downrank the story. For all the talk of unregulated filth, the internet still often behaves like the pinch-mouthed maiden aunt of unjustified stereotype. For the most part, however, the Irish have been more relaxed about cussing than the English, who, in turn, have been more relaxed about cussing than the Americans. That nation's media will still pixellate the raised middle finger when it is offered to the camera in digital insult. Is the finger standing in for the erect male member? When fully visible is it enacting the words 'f**k you!' to a frail readership? The most infuriatingly prissy manifestation of such puritanism is that dread construction 'F-bomb' – as infantilising as referring to your excreta as 'poop' and 'wee-wee'. Trump's greatest weapon is exhaustion. Almost nobody has the energy to get annoyed with him any more You saw a bit of that this week. 'It's still surprising to see the president drop an F-bomb on the White House grounds,' the late-night host Seth Meyers said. 'Nothing says 'Everyone remain calm' like dropping an F-bomb on live TV,' his rival Jimmy Fallon ventured. The word is, this usage suggests, so explosive that it can destroy careers and send broadcasters in fraught supplication before the Federal Communications Commission. CNN had great fun contrasting the way Fox News treated Trump's verbal detonation with the right-leaning network's unforgiving attitude to swearing Democrats. Emily Compagno, a host on Fox, noted the president had been 'using some salty language'. Just 20 minutes later Compagno was considerably more heated when addressing the use by Jasmine Crockett, a representative from Texas, of the word 'f***ing' in a statement on the bombing of Iran. The host declared herself 'particularly repulsed' by the comments and went on to say, 'It's a pretty foul mouth of her for someone that went to a tidy little all-girls Catholic school.' The CNN report from Abby Phillip continued with a montage of earlier Fox jibes at sweary Democrats that confirmed the starchy, priggish tone of so much American discourse on 'bad language'. The Fox regular Jeanine Pirro argued that Democrats 'are like a bunch of potty-mouth kids'. Another said Democrats were so 'confounded by the fact that they've got to cuss'. All of this could confuse anyone familiar with Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning films or Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer-winning raps. The hard-collar puritanism to which the authorities pretend sits uneasily with a wider nation that, when it lets itself go, can be more creative with profanity than any other in the Anglosphere. Which is not to suggest it is Trump's way with words that has got him off relatively lightly. CNN is on to something with the politics of it all, but, the odd quip from light-night hosts noted, there has been little substantial outrage from the president's opponents either. His greatest weapon is exhaustion. Almost nobody has the energy to get annoyed with Trump any more. This may not be a terrible thing when it comes to 'salty language' on the front lawn. It's everything else he does that matters.
Irish Times
27-06-2025
- Irish Times
‘Daddy' Trump meets Nato, while defence, trade and Gaza dominate EU summit
Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Jack Horgan-Jones to look back on the week in politics: US President Donald Trump was the main attraction at a landmark Nato summit on Wednesday with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte calling him 'Daddy' during their press conference. Trump got what he came for with Nato member states agreeing to an increase of 5 per cent of GDP in defence spending . Over at the EU leaders summit on Thursday, defence spending was also high on the agenda with Ireland backing the EU's €150bn defence plan . The war in Gaza was highlighted too with Taoiseach Micheál Martin unable to comprehend how Europe doesn't seem capable of putting any pressure on Israel to stop it. And with Trump's tariffs pause set to end on July 9th, Ireland and other EU countries will be forgiven for looking at India and China as greater trading partners. Do policy interventions like reviewing RPZs compensate for the delayed release of the Government's housing plan ? The document won't be published until after the summer. Presidential candidates are still pretty thin on the ground with Fine Gael's Seán Kelly saying he 'could do a lot' as president but stopped short of declaring he actually will enter the race. Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week: The endurance test that Irish concert-goers have to go through is worth it, Democratic mayoral primary Zohran Mamdani shocks as New York swelters, and Jaws and its Irish connection .
The Irish Sun
26-06-2025
- The Irish Sun
White House posts ‘Daddy's Home' vid to round off Trump's Nato tour – but alliance's boss tries to DENY calling Don name
THE White House has celebrated Donald Trump's return from the Nato summit with a "Daddy's Home" video. It came just hours after 7 The White House has celebrated Trump's return from his Nato tour with a 'Daddy's Home' Credit: Twitter/@WhiteHouse 7 Trump speaks at a press conference, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacts to a reporter asking about the 'Daddy' comment Credit: Reuters 7 Trump (R) and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speak to media at the start of the second day of the 2025 NATO Summit Credit: Getty During the Nato summit on Wednesday, Rutte and Trump met after the He said in an expletive tirade to reporters: Rutte bizarrely said on Wednesday that "Daddy has to use strong language" in order to get the two countries to listen and stop the conflict, which Trump agreed. After the Nato chief's remark flabbergasted the world, the White House posted a playful video to X to Usher's hit "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)". read more news The video shows Trump stepping off his plane to adoring crowds lining the streets while the lyrics "Daddy's home, home for me" plays. It also shows snippets of Trump's Nato meeting, with Rutte making an appearance as well as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. In another part of the minute-long video, Trump can be seen shaking hands and introducing himself to officials as the Usher track says "Hey, hey, hey Daddy". It came hours after Rutte had to retract his "daddy" comment after it accidentally became the focal point of the summit. Most read in The US Sun He argued: "The daddy thing, I didn't call [Trump] daddy, what I said, is that sometimes… In "And I said, 'that sounds a little bit like a small child asking his daddy, 'hey, are you still staying with the family ?' So in that sense, I use daddy, not that I was calling President Trump daddy." Zelensky tries new formal look for crunch meeting with Trump at Nato as Don says war leader 'couldn't have been nicer' But Trump wasn't embarrassed by the comment and appeared to be rather flattered as he spoke in a press conference. After being asked how he felt to be referred to as "daddy," Trump responded: "No, he likes me, I think he likes me! If he doesn't I'll let you know and I'll come back and I'll hit him hard OK?' He added through a grin: "He did it very affectionately though, 'daddy, you're my daddy.'" Trump had said earlier during his talk with Rutte that he was confident the Iran-Israel ceasefire will hold. He argued: "They're not going to be fighting each other, they've had it. "Like two kids in the schoolyard, they fight like hell, you can't stop them. Let them fight for two or three minutes then it's easy to stop them." The "schoolyard" comment is what is thought to have spurred Rutte on to call the US President "daddy". On Wednesday, the bloc agreed to a gargantuan increase in defence spending in the latest win for Trump. 7 The video shows Trump shaking hands as he gets off his plane Credit: Twitter/@WhiteHouse 7 He's also shown stood on a red carpet Credit: Twitter/@WhiteHouse 7 Craters on a ridge at the Fordow plant after US strikes Credit: EPA Nearly all of the 32 Nato countries agreed to committing to "invest five per cent of GDP annually on core defense requirements as well as defense-and security-related spending by 2035". But Spain rebuked the agreement and said it would only be willing to increase its spending by a mere two per cent. After saying he doesn't know what "the problem" is, he vowed to respond by forcing high tariffs on the country. He slammed: "They want a little bit of a free ride, but they'll have to pay it back to us on trade." But as Spain belongs to the European Union, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of all its member countries, they're not supposed to negotiate trade deals individually. Trump added: "I'm going to negotiate directly with Spain. I'm going to do it myself." It comes as the CIA says In a bombshell statement, the Agency's director John Ratcliffe confirmed 'several key Iranian nuclear facilities' were wiped out and must be completely rebuilt. 'The CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes ,' Ratcliffe said. 'This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.' The chief added the CIA would 'provide updates to the American public' given the 'national importance' of the operation. The White House had earlier called for the arrest of whoever leaked a classified intelligence report on Iran's nuclear sites White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the person responsible for leaking the classified Iran intelligence report should face jail time. 'They should go to jail,' she told Fox News' Ryan Schmelz when asked about potential punishment for the leaker. Leavitt said the DIA memo had been 'discredited' by U.S. and Israeli officials — and even by 'CNN ran with a story they knew wasn't fully vetted,' Leavitt told She confirmed the Secret Iranian fortress Trump's bombs CAN'T reach By Patrick Harrington, Foreign News Reporter Trump may have "obliterated" Iran's notorious Fordow facility, but there are fears the nuke programme lives on in another top-secret mountain fortress. Iranian officials have claimed the key enriched uranium was carted out of Fordow before Pickaxe is a peak in the mountains surrounding Natanz, another of Iran's nuclear plants hammered by the US and Israel, and around 90 miles south of The site is still under construction, but has been secretly expanded and reinforced over the past four years. The peak is over 5,000ft high - taller than any mountain in the UK - and the site is thought to be buried 328ft down. 7 CIA chief Ratcliffe released this statement on his profile on X Credit: X
