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‘If Your Children Are Watching, Be Warned’: Here’s How Networks Covered Trump’s F-Word To Iran

By Henry Griffiths on April 6, 2026

Donald Trump’s deranged call for Iran to “Open the Fuckin’ Strait” on Sunday led some major news networks to do something that’d be otherwise stunning — cursing on live TV — if it were not to accurately depict the president’s wild online behavior.

Nearly an hour after Trump’s unhinged Easter morning post where he threatened to attack Iran’s civilian infrastructure should the regime not open the Strait of Hormuz, CNN’s Jake Tapper emphasized the “extraordinary graphic” nature of Trump’s words.

“If your children are watching, be warned — the president did not use polite language,” advised the “State of the Union” host before reading Trump’s post in full, including his call for Iran to “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”

He went on to note that destroying civilian power infrastructure is “generally considered to constitute a war crime under international law, though the president could argue that the infrastructure has dual use and also is utilized by Iran’s military.”

He proceeded to drop the word “fuckin’” several more times on his program.

His colleague, Manu Raju, avoided using the word altogether with an “f-bleep strait” workaround whereas the network’s Fareed Zakaria freely used the word.

pic.twitter.com/I2qHtWsX8d

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 5, 2026

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“Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell” — Jake Tapper reads Trump’s Truth Social post on air pic.twitter.com/I2qHtWsX8d

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 5, 2026

Before Tapper’s program hit the air, MS NOW’s “The Weekend” host Eugene Daniels censored himself while initially reading the post before dropping the f-word minutes later, likely to stress the president’s unprecedented use of language in the public eye.

“That is a quote from the president so, yes, we are saying it on television,” Daniels stressed.

“Should’ve given parental warning,” added host Jacqueline Alemany of Daniels reading the post, which did not include such a warning on social media.

MS NOW’s Jonathan Capehart, “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker and Fox News’ Trey Yingst steered clear of reading the word aloud while BBC News put a censorship bar over a screenshot of the post.

It’s worth noting that the Federal Communications Commission prohibits the airing of “profane content” on broadcast TV from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., times when “there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience,” per its website.

That rule, however, doesn’t appear to apply to cable TV networks as they are “subscription services.”

It’s unclear how the FCC, which is currently headed by a Project 2025 contributor who has sought to use the agency to punish broadcasters deemed unfair to the president, could proceed with any wave of public complaints.

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