Why TACO trade gets under Trump's skin

The Hill

04-06-2025

President Trump has fielded questions from the Oval Office in recent weeks about Elon Musk's drug use, sensitive matters of diplomacy and the ethics of accepting a Qatari jet as a gift to be used as Air Force One.
He's chafed at some of those questions, but few set him off like the one he received about the concept of the Wall Street TACO trade, an acronym that stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out.'
'Don't ever say what you said,' Trump snapped at a reporter last week when first asked about the trend. 'That's a nasty question. To me, that's the nastiest question.'
The TACO trend has struck a particular nerve with the president, who built his brand on his business acumen and presents himself as a master dealmaker.
The TACO acronym has caught on in political circles in recent weeks, though the term was coined by a Financial Times columnist. The acronym is reference to traders on Wall Street becoming less reactive to Trump's tariff announcements based on the pattern that he will ultimately pull them back or kick them down the road.
The president initially threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada in early February but ultimately delayed imposing them.
Trump imposed sweeping 'reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of nations on April 2 but announced one week later there would be a 90-day reprieve where the tariffs were lowered to 10 percent.
More recently, he threatened a 50 percent tariff on goods from the European Union, only to announce within days they would be postponed amid negotiations.
But the simple TACO acronym has clearly gotten under Trump's skin, and Democrats and other opponents of Trump have seized upon it because it undercuts his persona as a savvy businessman whose every move is that of a dealmaker outwitting his opponents.
While Trump allies see the president's reversals as a sign of necessary flexibility and part of a grand plan, the TACO acronym suggests Trump gets rattled at the first sign of trouble.
The Drudge Report poked fun at Trump over the phrase late last week, with a front page that covered the president in Mexican food.
Democrats, seeking to further irk the president, parked a taco truck outside the Republican National Committee's headquarters Tuesday that was wrapped with an image of Trump in a chicken suit. Reports said it ran out of the free tacos it was providing in an hour.
The White House has presented Trump as a master negotiator while brushing off the criticism from Democrats and traders. But it's hard to argue the uncertainty surrounding Trump's tariff regime isn't itself an issue.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked Tuesday about business leaders who want to see certainty but haven't gotten it with Trump's tariff approach.
'You also have U.S. business leaders begging to meet with this president and begging to come to the White House to talk to him because they know that he is a negotiator in chief, that he is making good deals on behalf of the American worker,' Leavitt responded.
One lingering question is whether Trump's distaste for the 'TACO' moniker might influence his decision-making moving forward.
The president's views on tariffs on trade imbalances are deeply held, and he is not going to back off his aggressive use of tariffs any time soon. That was made clear last Friday night, when he announced he was doubling tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from 25 percent to 50 percent.
'Rest assured,' Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday, 'tariffs are not going away.'
That decision came after the courts handed Trump a couple of losses on tariffs, ruling his use of one law to justify the trade regime was illegal. Trump responded by using a different law to double the steel and aluminum tariffs.
There are multiple key deadlines approaching that will further test whether Trump is all bluster or whether he's willing to follow through on threats that could have major economic consequences.
The 90-day extension Trump granted the country-specific tariffs is set to expire July 8, and investors will be closely monitoring whether the president is willing to extend the pause or whether higher tariff rates on imports will be reinstated.
Trump also delayed his 50 percent tariff threat against the European Union until July 9 after talking with the president of the European Commission.
It means July 8 and 9 will be either a sequel to 'Liberation Day' or a TACO day to remember.
President Trump promised to settle the war in Ukraine before he even took office and has positioned himself as a 'peacemaker' seeking to put out fires around the globe.
But nearly five months into his term, he's finding it more difficult than he had hoped as negotiations drag on in Ukraine and the Middle East and a nuclear deal with Iran proves elusive.
'I think Trump is fishing around for something that he can call a peace deal,' said one former diplomat.
The former diplomat noted the Good Friday Agreement, a major diplomatic success, took years to successfully negotiate to halt decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Trump promised to swiftly end the war in Ukraine throughout the 2024 campaign. The conflict began in 2022 when Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
While Trump has spoken with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky multiple times about ending the conflict and officials from both countries have met for direct talks, it's not clear the two sides are any closer to a ceasefire.
Russia has made clear it's not interested in a pause in fighting, and Ukraine in recent days launched a drone attack to target bombers in Russian territory.
'I would just like to remind everybody how far we have come in just four months,' press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. 'It was inconceivable last year at this time for Russia and Ukraine to be engaged in direct talks. And it's because of this president's insistence and determination to get this war to an end that those two countries sat down yesterday.'
Any significant changes to the situation may still be, as Trump likes to say, two weeks away.
In the Middle East, Israel continues to target Hamas in Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have died in an Israeli military campaign and watchdog groups have said a humanitarian crisis is unfolding.
The Trump administration's latest peace proposal, which it said Israel supported, landed with a dud when officials said the Hamas response was 'totally unacceptable.'
And on Iran, Trump has for weeks teased the possibility of a nuclear agreement coming together and talked up the idea of Tehran prospering economically.
But Axios on Monday reported that the proposal from the Trump administration would allow for low-level uranium enrichment by Iran, something that would undercut public comments from the president and his top aides.
'Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!' Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social.
Brett Samuels is a White House reporter for The Hill.