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From ‘FAFO’ to ‘Donroe Doctrine’ to Maduro’s drip – 25 funny, terrifying tweets covering the first surreal day of Trump’s attack on Venezuela

Michael White. Updated January 4th, 2026

It has been a wild 36-48 hours, as the aftershocks from the US attack on Venezuela continue to be felt the world over.

It has been hard at times to keep up with everything over the weekend, so we’ve done our best to capture the biggest – and most surreal – moments from the Venezuela mission.

First, there was the press conference about the attack on Saturday, where Pete Hegseth said Maduro “effed around and he found out” – a popular phrase in this White House, sometimes shortened to ‘FAFO’ (‘F*ck Around and Find Out’).

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Trump also gave his second term foreign policy a name: the ‘Donroe Doctrine’.

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In the same presser, Trump seemed to be in a fight with his age-old (and old age) enemy: wokeness.

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Oh, and Trump revisited one of this classics: seemingly confusing ‘asylum seekers’ with ‘asylums’.

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Trump later said the quiet part out loud on Fox News when it came to questions about Venezuela’s oil.

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And drew quite a nuanced distinction between his treatment of Maduro and the former president of Honduras.

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Nicolás Maduro’s outfit on his extraction flight to the US went viral.

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Marco Rubio’s role came under increased scrutinty.

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Finally, here’s a good selection of reaction, analysis and general ‘WTF’ expressions of despair.

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