'Chilling signal' hides beneath Trump's increasingly frequent profanity: historian

President Donald Trump is using profanity and insulting language at a dramatically higher rate in his second term than in his first, according to a new analysis of his speeches and social media posts.

The Washington Post analysis found that approximately 93 percent of Trump's second-term speeches contain at least one vulgar term, compared to 40 percent during the first 1½ years of his first term, and vulgar or insulting social media posts have roughly tripled compared to a similar period in his first term.

“President Trump does use the language to intimidate, to threaten, to attack his opponents,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton historian who studies presidential rhetoric. “So a curse is more than just a curse. In certain respects, it can be a way to send a very chilling signal to someone who is not supportive of him or threatening him about how angry he is … because now he has a record that he’s willing to go far to stop that person.”

That uptick in profanity tracks with Trump's "very aggressive presidency," the second time around, Zelizer said, and Trump is easily the most publicly profane chief executive in U.S. history.

“Sometimes when you sound like you’re debasing the language so much, it undermines how much people respect you,” Zelizer said. “It can leave voters, allies and opponents here and overseas thinking: This person is not a great leader. This person is almost desperate, because this is how they speak, and they’re not so ... much better than the rest of us.”

Trump's late-night posting has also increased sharply. About a third of his original Truth Social posts in his second term are published between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Eastern time, up from roughly one in six during a comparable period in his first term. Nearly half of his posts in 2026 contain first-person pronouns, up from around 30 percent in 2018.

His speeches have also grown more freewheeling. In half of his second-term addresses, Trump has gone off-topic 37 or more times — a significant jump from a median of 10 digressions during his first term.

The White House defended the president's language as a sign of authenticity. "President Trump doesn't care about being politically correct, he cares about Making America Great Again," said spokeswoman Olivia Wales.