This is a column of opinion and analysis by 13WMAZ's Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Randall Savage.
So what would you do if you were President of the United States - heading to an important meeting with some congressional leaders - and some uppity intern screamed the F-word at you?
President Donald Trump kept on walking without acknowledging the outburst or the culprit. But the commotion ignited a an all-out search in the nation's Capitol building to identify and discipline the foul-mouthed offender.
It happened Tuesday night as Trump walked through the Capitol rotunda on his way to hobnob with some members of Congress about the current immigration crisis.
The words "Mister President, F--K you," reverberated through those hallowed halls where similar language is often exchanged during heated debates on controversial issues. Therefore, the four-word jab wouldn't have seemed out of place at all if it hadn't come from an intern's mouth.
The president himself is known for lacing his daily tweets with off-color commentary that's similar to the heated exchanges in back-alley bars when inebriated customers talk sports.
"Every time I speak of the haters and losers I do so with great love and affection," Trump tweeted. "They cannot help the fact that they were born f--ked up!"
"Major League Baseball was really smart when they wouldn't let Mark Cuban buy a team," he tweeted. "Was it his financials or the fact that he's an a--hole?"
In other tweets, Trump has called Haiti, El Salvador and some African countries "sh--holes."
But Trump isn't the only president to use inflammatory language. During the 2012 campaign, former President Barack Obama said his Republican opponent Mitt Romney was a "bulls--tter." Obama also called Kanye West a "jacka--."
Earlier in American history during a discussion of the Revolutionary War, Honest Abe Lincoln reportedly commented, "There is nothing to make an Englishman sh-t quicker than the sight of General George Washington."
Not to be left out, some vice presidents - particularly Joe Biden and Dick Cheney - are known for their hush hush remarks. When Obama signed his health care initiative into law, Biden said, "This is a big f--king deal." Cheney once got into a heated debate with Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy. Cheney told the senator to "go f--k yourself."
On the campaign trail in 2000, future President George W. Bush called a New York Times reporter "a major league assh---e."
Then there was president Harry Truman who was also known as "Give 'em hell Harry." Truman once called Gen. Douglas McArthur a "dumb son of a bitch," and Richard Nixon "a shifty-eyed goddamned liar."
With those presidential and vice presidential expletives duly recorded, perhaps congressional big wigs can forgive a young intern for yelling the f-word at Trump.
It probably wasn't the first time the phrase has been directed at him. It definitely won't be the last.
