President Donald Trump unleashed a memorable zinger on Venezuela's ousted leader Nicolás Maduro during a high-energy speech, branding him a "violent guy" who even tried aping his signature rally dance. The quip came as Trump celebrated a daring U.S. special forces raid that snatched Maduro and his wife from Caracas last week, calling the mission "brilliant" and a game-changer for seizing Venezuela's oil wealth.

At the Trump-Kennedy Center on January 6, Trump didn't hold back, slamming Maduro not only for alleged crimes like torture and killings but for the cheeky imitation of his fist-pumping "Y.M.C.A." routine that caps his rallies. "He tries to imitate my dance," Trump said to laughs from Republican lawmakers, adding with a grin that First Lady Melania "hates" it too – joking, "Could you imagine FDR dancing like this?" The remark tied into broader boasts about the raid's success and plans to hand over up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil for reconstruction.

Maduro's viral dance clips – grooving to remixes of his "No War, Yes Peace" chants at 2025 rallies – had long rubbed U.S. officials the wrong way, especially amid sanctions and strikes on Venezuelan drug boats. Trump framed the mockery as the final straw from a defiant tyrant, contrasting his crowd-pleasing moves with Maduro's techno-fueled shows. Now facing narco-terrorism charges in New York, Maduro labeled himself a "prisoner of war" in court, as global voices cry foul over the "abduction."

The operation positions Trump as a foreign policy heavyweight heading into 2026 midterms, warning GOP allies of impeachment pitfalls without big wins. Yet Venezuela's path forward remains shaky – U.S. intel hints Maduro's old guard might still hold sway, even as oil funds promise recovery. This blend of personal flair and hard power shows Trump's unfiltered approach: turning taunts into triumphs on the world stage.