"Foxtrot Delta Tango" Is Another Subtle Way to Protest the Current President

Although President Donald Trump won the 2024 election fair and square, there are plenty of people across the country who are not thrilled with his presidency. That number appears to be on the rise, as do a variety of ways to signal that you might not support him.

"Foxtrot Delta Tango" is a phrase that has been popping up more and more online, and people are now wondering exactly what it means. Here's what we know.

Foxtrot, Delta, and Tango are all letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet. The goal of using these words in place of the letters of the alphabet was so that they would be easily discernible over radio and telephone. The words all stand in for the letter they start with, so "Foxtrot Delta Tango" stands for FDT. From there, you have to have a little bit of context to understand what the acronym stands for.

Although FDT likely stands for more than one thing, the most common way it's being used at the moment is "F--k Donald Trump." Basically, it's a slightly covert way of attacking the current president without resorting to explicit vulgarity. Although plenty of people now know what it means, it's also subtle enough that it might go over some people's heads, although that's probably not the best reason to use it.

Instead, it's something of a meme, a little bit like "Let's Go Brandon" for the right while Joe Biden was the president. It's a meme designed to unite the people who understand it without being so vulgar as to upset anyone who doesn't. Of course, the sentiment remains unchanged, and these people clearly would prefer if Donald Trump were not president, to say the least. But this way, the message is at least a little sanitized.

Although "Foxtrot Delta Tango" is among the newest codes for Trump hatred, it's far from the only one. 8647 is a numeric code that serves a similar purpose, with 86 referring to the common expression for ending or getting rid of someone, and 47 referring to Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States. So if you see that on a bumper sticker, now you know.

Although there's also much more outspoken resistance to the president happening across the country, these phrases are subtle signals that you can send all the time that let people know what your political alignment might be. Although it seems unlikely that Trump will be out of office any time before 2029, these forms of protest might help people cope and form community.

"Foxtrot Delta Tango" doesn't seem to have any explicit association with the military, and its origins are unclear. Like all groups of people across the country, former and current military personnel likely have a mix of views about the president. Using the NATO alphabet is not meant to signal anything. It's just a convenient form of code.