World leaders are held in high regard by the public and expected to lead by example. 

They’ve guided nations through war, navigated national tragedy, and made decisions that have changed the course of history.

But, even those in the most esteemed positions can have momentary lapses in composure.

And, when a world leader loses their rag, it happens on a global stage – with millions watching – and it’s usually over far more than spilled milk.

Just days ago President Donald Trump publicly dropped the F-bomb in front of stunned reporters.

He appeared to lose his cool, accusing both Israel and Iran of violating the ceasefire deal that he announced Monday evening.

Although many may think it rare for an international leader to be caught off guard with the cameras rolling, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

From Trump’s foul-mouthed tirade to George Bush’s one-finger salute, here are some of the shocking times global figures have been caught swearing on camera. 

Biden insults reporter

Former President Joe Biden landed himself in hot water in 2022 after he was heard calling a Fox News reporter a ‘stupid son of a b****’ on a hot mic.

Biden made the comment at the tail end of an event meant to publicize his efforts to address supply-chain issues and tackle inflation.

When he finished his prepared remarks, several reporters yelled out questions to the president – who was seated across the long East Room of the White House. 

He was caught calling Peter Doocy a ‘stupid son of a b****’ on a hot mic after he asked a question about inflation.

Doocy appeared on Sean Hannity’s program after the incident to explain that he had since heard directly from the president who had called his cellphone.

Doocy said that initially, he did not hear the president’s insult.

‘My reaction was delayed because as you can see the Biden staff were ushering us out. 

‘They were telling us thank you, time to go. It wasn’t until we went to the basement and then outside and then back to the press room that somebody said ‘Hey, did you hear with the president said about you?’

‘I said ‘no, What did he say?’, 

‘He called you a stupid sob.’

‘And I said ‘I did not hear that’, and I opened up my phone and… he did!’ Doocy explained.

The 34-year-old White House Correspondent then told how the president reached out to him around one hour later.

‘After years of clips of the president and I kind of mixing it up on the campaign trail and during the transition here at The White House, within about an hour of that exchange, he called my cell phone and he just said ‘It is nothing personal, pal.’

Trump’s ceasefire F-bomb 

Donald Trump shattered an unwritten presidential rule as he became the first commander-in-chief to deliberately say ‘f***’ live on TV.

Trump unleashed a furious rant claiming that the ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran had been violated by both sides.

‘We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,’ Trump said before boarding Marine One en route to the NATO Summit early Tuesday morning.

The president said Monday evening that he had brokered a ceasefire between Iran and Israel after ordering his own strike on three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend.

Earlier Monday, Iran had retaliated by sending missiles toward the U.S.’s largest military base in the Middle East, located just outside of Doha in Qatar, which didn’t prompt a response from Trump.

Instead he announced the ceasefire. On Tuesday morning Trump was fired up after Israel decided to launch another massive assault on Iran just as the deal was to take hold.

‘Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen,’ an incredulous said.

‘I’m not happy with Israel,’ he added. ‘I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel’s going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land. I’m not happy about that.’

Around 6 p.m. Monday, after holing up with his national security advisers all day, Trump announced that a ceasefire deal had been made.

When the ceasefire was to take hold he wrote on Truth Social network: ‘The ceasefire is now in effect. Please do not violate it!’

Six minutes after the 7 a.m. ceasefire was to take hold, Iran shot a single missile.

At 10:25 a.m., two more Iranian missiles were shot at Israel.

‘In response to Iran’s violations, the Israeli Air Force destroyed a radar array near Tehran,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s said.

On the South Lawn, Trump pushed that Israel needed to chill out.

‘I’ve gotta get Israel to calm down now,’ he said.

The president called Netanyahu from Air Force One and then came back to the press cabin en route to the Hague, Netherlands, where the NATO Summit it taking place Tuesday night and all-day Wednesday.

‘And I said, ‘you gotta call back the planes. It’s enough, it’s enough,” Trump said he told the Israeli PM. ‘And they did, which I respect very greatly. So nobody was killed. … but then a lot of planes going in the wrong direction, you know that right?’

Trump predicted that the ceasefire would hold this time because they’re ‘tired of it.’

‘I think they don’t want it to happen again. And Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon by the way. I think that’s the last thing on their mind right now,’ he added.

Bush’s one finger victory salute 

George Bush was caught putting his middle finger up at the camera during an interview while he was the governor of Texas.

The clip shows the 41st US President smoothing his hair for the camera, complaining about an off-camera aide. 

He says: ‘She’s still telling me what to do,’ before he flashes his middle finger and smirks.

Bush then chuckles and insists, ‘it was just a one finger victory salute’, as the camera crew gasps in shock and worried aides murmur about whether the camera’s running.

A clip of the incident, which took place at a production facility in Austin, Texas, in 2013, has racked up more than half a million views on YouTube.

It was reportedly filmed after Bush lost the 2013 primary election for Mayor of New York City.

Rudd’s expletive-ridden rant 

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd was rocked by controversy in 2012 when his f-bomb laden tirade went viral after someone stole footage of him losing his temper as he bungled lines for a video recording.

The video was shot and edited in September 2009 by an assistant adviser in Mr Rudd’s media team – Phil Fitzgerald – as he was recording a message in Mandarin congratulating China on the 60th anniversary of the Communist Party.

Appearing on The Project in 2022, Mr Rudd said the ‘very funny’ situation took place after he had just come out of question time.

‘I’ve got 15 minutes to do it in – I asked for a very simple [script] – ‘hi, how are you? have a great happy Chinese New Year’ – in Chinese, I can do that,’ he said.

‘Instead, the translator at the embassy gave me this text, which was the Chinese equivalent of a Shakespearean sonnet.

‘And I’m reading this thing on the auto queue thinking ‘oh no, really?’

‘And I am struggling through … and it goes for two pages.’

Biden’s F-bomb to Obama

It isn’t always in tense moments that presidents have let profanities slip.

In 2010 an excited Joe Biden dropped an F-bomb while celebrating the signing of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

At the signing ceremony Joe Biden, vice president at the time, introduced Barack Obama, embraced him, and gave him an expletive-laced congratulations. 

‘This is a big f**** deal,’ he said to Obama at the White House.

The microphone at the podium caught Biden’s use of the f-word. 

The landmark bill was passed by the House of Representatives Sunday after a 14-month-long political battle that left the legislation without a single Republican vote 

Minister’s C-bomb

Former Australia Education Minister Christopher Pyne appeared to drop the C-bomb in parliament in 2014.

Video footage from Question Time shows Mr Pyne insulting the Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten. 

‘If the ‘number one whinger in Australia’ was a reality TV show, Madame Speaker, there’d be no point in any other contestant entering it, because if Bill Shorten entered it, he would win it,’ Mr Pyne says.

His speech is interrupted by yells from Tony Burke, the Manager of Opposition Business.

Mr Pyne pauses, before he can be heard saying: ‘You’re such a …’ The last word in his sentence is difficult to hear.

The clip has went viral social media, with some people suggesting Mr Pyne said: ‘You’re such a c***.’ 

The minister’s office claimed Mr Pyne actually said: ‘You’re such a grub.’

‘He said grub,’ Mr Pyne’s media spokesman insisted. ‘He knows what he said, and he said grub.’

Fox’s fury  

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox made his position clear on Donald Trump’s pledge to make Mexico pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in.

‘I’m not going to pay for that f***ing wall. He should pay for it,’ Fox told Fusion’s Jorge Ramos in a 2016 interview.

Trump quickly responded on Twitter saying: ‘FMR PRES of Mexico, Vicente Fox horribly used the F word when discussing the wall. He must apologize! If I did that there would be a uproar!’ 

Trump curses before presidential address

President Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic panicking over an ink stain on his outfit moments before his Oval Office address on the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

‘Oh f***…uh oh, I got a pen mark. Anybody, anybody have any white stuff?’ Trump was heard saying before the cameras started rolling.

The president made another unscripted comment after the address while apparently unaware that a C-SPAN camera was still streaming.

Trump concluded his remarks and waited patiently until a voice off-camera said: ‘We’re clear.’

He let out an exaggerated exhale and said: ‘Okayyy!’ as a man stepped into the frame and removed the microphone from inside his blazer.

Trump struck a much more serious tone during the actual speech as he announced an immediate shut-down of all travel from Europe to the United States to try to stop the spread of coronavirus.

‘We will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days,’ Trump stated, conceding that world health officials had now declared the health crisis a pandemic after insisting for days that it would ‘go away’ and urging Americans not to panic.

Bush and Blair unplugged 

In 2006 a microphone picked up an unaware George Bush saying that Syria should press Hezbollah to ‘stop doing this shit’ and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon. 

The US president was talking privately to Tony Blair, the British prime minister at the time, during a lunch at the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg about an upsurge of violence in the Middle East. 

Neither immediately realised a microphone was transmitting their candid thoughts on that and other issues on the summit’s official television network.

Bush, eating a piece of bread and calling for a diet Coke, said: ‘I think Condi [Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state at the time] is going to go [to the Middle East] pretty soon.’

Blair said: ‘See, if she goes out she’s got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk.’

‘See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.’ Bush replied, without specifying who ‘they’ are.