Donald Trump had an Oval Office meltdown over Wall Street’s new acronym for his tariffs: TACO Trade, which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out.
As Trump took questions during a swearing-in ceremony for Washington D.C.’s new acting attorney general, Jeanine Pirro, a reporter asked the president what he thought of the new phrase.
He was clearly unimpressed.
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“I chicken out?” he asked.
“I’ve never heard that. You mean because I reduced China from the 145 percent that I said, down to 100, and then down to another number, and I said: ‘You have to open up your whole country?
“And because I gave the European Union a 50 percent tax tariff, and they called up and they said, ‘Please let’s meet right now?
“It’s called negotiation!” he added.
The term TACO trade was coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong earlier this month as the world struggled to make sense of Trump’s on-again-off-again trade wars.
But the chicken moniker has since taken off among the investors on Wall Street, given the president’s tendency to walk back many of his threats.
For instance, Trump postponed so-called reciprocal tariffs against trading partners a week after his Liberation Day announcement on April 2.
He had threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, including steel and aluminum, but later announced a one-month pause.
And for all the tough talk on China, he slashed tariffs against the country not long after they were announced.
Over the weekend, Trump also delayed a 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union until July 9.
However, he insists the rollercoaster negotiations are all part of the plan. As for the question about being a chicken?
“Don’t ever say what you said,” he told the reporter. “That’s a nasty question.”
Later, he added: “I usually have the opposite problem. They say I am too tough.”
