After yet another reversal on a proposed tariff, Wall Street is abuzz about the TACO trade—an acronym for “Trump always chickens out.”
President Donald Trump is not happy with the nickname, if his reply to a reporter during a White House press briefing on Wednesday is any indication.
The TACO trade theory
The term “TACO” arrived on the scene thanks to Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong, who coined it in an article published on May 2. In the piece, Armstrong accused Trump of having a weak stomach for the market volatility caused by his tariffs, which is why he keeps reversing, reducing, or delaying them.
“Regular readers will not be surprised by Unhedged’s view that the recent rally has a lot to do with markets realising that the US administration does not have a very high tolerance for market and economic pressure, and will be quick to back off when tariffs cause pain,” he wrote. “This is the Taco theory: Trump Always Chickens Out.”
TACO has reportedly become a popular acronym around Wall Street. When a reporter introduced Trump to this term on Wednesday, days after he announced a delay on the E.U. tariffs, he reacted strongly.
“I’ve never heard that,” he said. “You mean because I reduced China from 145 percent that I set down to 100, and then down to another number, and I said you have to open up your whole country?”
“You call that chickening out?”
“Don’t ever say what you said,” he ordered the reporter. “That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.”
‘Rage baiting the President’
Trump’s response to the term led right to everyone making the same joke online—that he’s going to go wild on tariffs to prove he’s no chicken.
“Non-zero chance that this question leads to a Second Great Depression,” wrote X user @Calebej37.
User @MikeIsaac predicted that Trump is ‘gonna do like 600 percent tariffs b/c some reporter said “my man did you hear what they called you???’”
“Rage baiting the president into destroying the economy,” joked @ettingermentum.
“Wouldn’t be surprised to see a new, insane, tariff announcement by the end of the week,” wrote @buccocapital.
Others may be genuinely concerned about this.
“Really wish nobody told him about this,” said @ryangrim.
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