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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Steven Poole

Forget euphemism, Trump is using unabashed viciousness in his language against Iran

Pete Hegseth laughs as Donald Trump speaks
‘Trump and Hegseth’s vivid wallowings in industrial ultraviolence are in reality no more honest than regular political dissembling.’ Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

On 23 March, Donald Trump said that if things didn’t go to his liking in Iran, “we just keep bombing our little hearts out”. A week later the US president told journalists on Air Force One: “You never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.”

On 4 March, Pete Hegseth squirmed in pleasure as he described “death and destruction from the sky all day long”. Whatever happened to the subtle art of political euphemism?

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