--- description: The latest popular shorthand, which suggests “Trump always chickens out,” clearly ruffled the President’s feathers. title: From MAHA to TACO: A Guide to the Acronyms of Trump’s Second Term image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0a3922d0a8396f91/6998c70425f3ee110d644ae3/trump-taco.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # From MAHA to TACO—A Guide to the Acronyms of Trump’s Second Term by [Miranda Jeyaretnam](/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/) and [Chad de Guzman](/author/chad-de-guzman/) May 29, 2025 10:15 AM CUT  President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 28, 2025. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 28, 2025.Chris Kleponis—CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Miranda Jeyaretnam](/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/) and [Chad de Guzman](/author/chad-de-guzman/) May 29, 2025 10:15 AM CUT You may be familiar with POTUS (President of the United States), MAGA (Make America Great Again), and GOP (Grand Old Party), but there’s a new [acronym](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acronym "undefined") that President Donald Trump isn’t a fan of. Short for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” _Financial Times_ columnist Robert Armstrong [coined](https://archive.is/fwrdN "undefined") the phrase shortened as “TACO” to describe the President’s pattern of making major disruptive policy moves, such as levying hefty tariffs on effectively every country in the world, before reversing course after the moves cause panic and economic shock. The shorthand, which has been picked up by [others](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/business/stock-market-trump-tariffs.html "undefined"), has clearly ruffled Trump’s feathers. “Don’t ever say what you said, that’s a nasty question,” Trump shot back when a reporter asked him about “TACO” on Wednesday. “To me that’s the nastiest question.” “You call that chickening out?” Trump said. “It’s called negotiation,” adding that he “usually \[has\] the opposite problem—they say, ‘you’re too tough!’” Trump’s apparent sensitivity will likely only ensure the acronym’s longevity among critics. “I want to be famous for my dumb joke, definitely, but I also don’t want the President to ruin the U.S. economy," Armstrong told [Axios](https://www.axios.com/2025/05/29/trump-taco-trade-tariffs "undefined"). “And so I’d like to have both of those things, if at all possible.” But TACO isn’t the only acronym to take off in Trump’s second term. Here’s a guide to some of the others to know. ## DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) “DEI is DOA,” Trump’s son Don Jr. [posted](https://x.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1903193579360821565 "undefined") on X in March, referencing the medical acronym for “dead on arrival.” It’s a common refrain among Republicans and supporters of the President’s push to dismantle diversity-related policies across the federal government [and private sector](https://time.com/7261857/us-companies-keep-dei-initiatives-list-trump-diversity-order-crackdown/ "undefined"). Whereas Trump’s first-term Administration focused most of its attacks on [“CRT” (Critical Race Theory)](https://time.com/5891138/critical-race-theory-explained/ "undefined"), his 2024 [campaign](https://time.com/6998539/trump-shooting-republicans-blame-dei-secret-service-women/ "undefined") and current Administration have made [“DEI” a main target](https://time.com/7210039/what-is-dei-trump-executive-order-companies-diversity-efforts/ "undefined") and [scapegoat](https://time.com/7206543/the-los-angeles-fires-have-nothing-to-do-with-dei/ "undefined").  A sign that reads "DEI in our Military" is visible as Republican Senators question Trump’s then-nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing on Jan. 14, 2025. Andrew Harnik—Getty Images ## DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) What started in the 2010s as a nickname for an internet-viral [shiba inu](https://time.com/6981968/shiba-inu-kabosu-dies-doge-meme/ "undefined") and morphed into a “[meme coin](https://time.com/7209169/trump-meme-coins-crypto/ "undefined")” became an official initialism in November when then-President-elect Trump [announced](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113472884874740859 "undefined") the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory body spearheaded by tech billionaire [Elon Musk](https://time.com/7213409/elon-musk-us-government-trump/ "undefined"). The initiative, aimed at slashing federal spending, has [overseen](https://time.com/7222251/doge-musk-federal-workers-government/ "undefined") mass layoffs and sweeping cuts to government programs in the early months of Trump’s second term. Musk, who [announced](https://time.com/7289045/musk-trump-big-beautiful-bill-national-debt-deficit-disappointed-doge/ "undefined") on Wednesday that he is exiting the Trump Administration, has long hyped up the Doge meme, including [naming](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1377567762919292938 "undefined") a SpaceX satellite “[DOGE-1](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1391523807148527620 "undefined"),” and boosted the cryptocurrency, including when he [changed](https://time.com/6268366/dogecoin-shares-twitter-logo-musk/ "undefined") the then-Twitter logo to the dog-image meme. > [](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1917048786633036129/) ## FAFO (F-ck Around, Find Out) Amid a dispute over deportations with Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro in January, Trump [posted](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/113896394915126793 "undefined") on his Truth Social platform an AI-generated image of himself wearing a fedora with the letters FAFO in red on a sign next to him. “This is awesome,” Musk said, [resharing](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1883694908298625359 "undefined") the image on X. Trump had previously [reshared](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113843587894855063 "undefined") a post by right-wing internet troll that said “5 days until FAFO” alongside an image of Trump, on Jan. 15, five days before Trump’s second-term inauguration. The acronym, which stands for “f-ck around, find out,” has been adopted “as a slogan” by far-right groups, according to [Merriam Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/slang/fafo "undefined"), but is also widely used across the ideological spectrum “as an expression of schadenfreude” about someone receiving negative consequences for their actions. _The Times_ of London dubbed it “[Fafo diplomacy](http://web.archive.org/web/0/https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/fafo-meaning-colombia-trump-tariffs-migrants-d6xhncq5z "undefined")” when Trump pressured Colombia to quickly reverse its opposition to accepting deportation flights after Trump threatened to hike tariffs on the nation’s exports. > [](https://twitter.com/TruthTrumpPosts/status/1883605603345629369) ## MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) MAHA is a spin on Trump’s tried-and-tested slogan “Make America Great Again”—only with a focus on health. It took off in 2024 after [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.](https://time.com/collections/time100-health-2025/7279603/robert-f-kennedy-jr-2/ "undefined")—known for his fringe and sometimes disinformation-based views on health including [vaccine skepticism](https://time.com/7210943/rfk-confirmation-hearing-vaccines/ "undefined")—suspended his presidential campaign and threw his support behind Donald Trump. Trump nominated Kennedy to be [Secretary of Health and Human Services](https://time.com/7222533/rfk-jr-health-human-services-secretary-confirmation-interview-fox-vaccines/ "undefined"), and Kennedy has since continued to [use the slogan for government initiatives](https://time.com/7288175/make-america-healthy-again-commission-report-childrens-health/ "undefined").  Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at an event announcing proposed changes to SNAP and food dye legislation with West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey in Martinsburg, W. Va., on March 28, 2025. Stephanie Scarbrough—AP ## TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) “Are you or your loved ones suffering from illnesses such as TDS, also known as Trump Derangement Syndrome?” begins a satirical ad released by Kennedy’s former running mate, Nicole Shanahan, in late August, days after Kennedy suspended his [presidential bid](https://time.com/7014448/rfk-campaign-trump-endorsement/ "undefined") and endorsed Trump. (Trump even [promoted](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113054298570677792 "undefined") the video on his Truth Social platform.) “It’s a horrible, horrible terminal disease. It destroys the mind before the body, but the body eventually goes,” Trump [said](https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1829693510389260317 "undefined") of TDS at a Moms for Liberty event in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 30, 2024. While the phrase [originated](https://time.com/4236971/donald-trump-derangement-syndrome-and-the-lizard-brain-campaign/ "undefined") during Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016, TDS has become an increasingly popular diagnosis Trump and his supporters like to give his critics. Five Republican state senators in Minnesota introduced a [bill](https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF2589&version=latest&session=ls94&session%5Fyear=2025&session%5Fnumber=0 "undefined") in March to codify TDS and categorize “verbal expressions of intense hostility toward” Trump as a mental illness. The bill defines TDS as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies” of Trump. It also lists symptoms as “Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior.” “This is possibly the worst bill in Minnesota history,” Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, a Democrat, [said](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/03/17/trump-derangement-syndrome-bill-causes-minnesota-capitol-discord "undefined"). “If it is meant as a joke, it is a waste of staff time and taxpayer resources that trivializes serious mental health issues. If the authors are serious, it is an affront to free speech and an expression of a dangerous level of loyalty to an authoritarian president.” Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio, on May 15 also [introduced](https://davidson.house.gov/2025/5/rep-warren-davidson-introduces-the-trump-derangement-syndrome-tds-research-act-of-2025 "undefined") a bill in Congress to direct the National Institutes of Health to study TDS. “Instead of funding ludicrous studies such as giving methamphetamine to cats or teaching monkeys to gamble for their drinking water,” he said, “the NIH should use that funding to research issues that are relevant to the real world.” > [](https://twitter.com/NicoleShanahan/status/1829291690277966165) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7289404/trump-taco-acronyms-meaning-dei-doge-maha-fafo-tds/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7289404/trump-taco-acronyms-meaning-dei-doge-maha-fafo-tds/"},"headline":"From MAHA to TACO—A Guide to the Acronyms of Trump’s Second Term","datePublished":"2025-05-29T10:15:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:49:52.222Z","description":"The latest popular shorthand, which suggests “Trump always chickens out,” clearly ruffled the President’s feathers.","url":"https://time.com/7289404/trump-taco-acronyms-meaning-dei-doge-maha-fafo-tds/","keywords":["Donald Trump","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0a3922d0a8396f91/6998c70425f3ee110d644ae3/trump-taco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Miranda Jeyaretnam","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Chad de Guzman","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0a3922d0a8396f91/6998c70425f3ee110d644ae3/trump-taco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Swears In Jeanine Pirro As Interim US Attorney For The District Of Columbia","caption":"President Trump Swears In Jeanine Pirro As Interim US Attorney For The District Of Columbia","creditText":"Chris Kleponis—CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7289404/trump-taco-acronyms-meaning-dei-doge-maha-fafo-tds/","name":"From MAHA to TACO—A Guide to the Acronyms of Trump’s Second Term"}}]}] ```