Thursday, May 29, 2025 - US President Donald Trump had a meltdown over Wall Street’s new acronym for his tariffs: TACO Trade, which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out
During a brief chat in the Oval Office after
the swearing-in of Interim Attorney for the District of Washington Jeanine
Pirro, CNBC White House correspondent Megan Casella asked Trump about his
credibility on tariffs.
“Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term
called the TACO trade. They’re saying ‘Trump always chickens out’ on your
tariff threats. And that’s why markets are higher this week. What’s your
response to that?” she asked
Trump appeared infuriated by the question, which referenced
Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong’s assessment of how
Wall Street is interpreting the administration’s tariffs.
“Oh, isn’t that nice. Chicken out. I’ve never heard that,”
Trump replied before turning indignant. “You mean because I reduced China from
145% that I set down to 100 and then down to another number. I said you have to
open your whole country.”
“And because I gave the European Union a 50% … tariff and
they called up and they said, “Please let’s meet right now,” he added. “And I
said, ‘I’ll give you until July’ … you call that chickening out?
“Six months ago, this country was stone-cold dead,” he later
said. “People didn’t think it would survive, and you ask a nasty question like
that. It’s called negotiation … Don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty
question.”
On April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation
Day,” Trump had fired off a 10% baseline tariff rate, then a blitz of
customized rates against virtually every country on the planet.
But just before the customized rates were poised to take
effect, Trump announced that he would pause all of them, except the one on
China, until July 8 to give his trade team time to negotiate lightning deals
with countries. Markets quickly began rebounding.
The Trump administration has since cut a deal with China,
subject to his highest tariff rates, to reduce them to about 30%
temporarily while negotiations play out.
“We have $14 trillion committed to investing when Biden
didn’t have practically anything — this country was dying,” he added. “You
know, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
“I went to Saudi Arabia. The king told me, he said, ‘You
have the hottest country in the world right now,'” Trump added.
Earlier this week, the president agreed to delay the
deadline he imposed against the European Union from June 1 to July 9, during
which he’s threatened to slap 50% tariffs on the bloc. The move came after
a call with EU President Ursula von der Leyen.
The Trump administration previously imposed 25% tariffs on
automobiles, aluminium, steel, and imports from Canada and Mexico that don’t
comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
That’s in addition to the baseline 10% tariff rate on all
imports and the 30% tariffs on China.
Watch the video below…
TRUMP addresses claim that he’s ‘chickening out’ on tariffs because he keeps changing rates pic.twitter.com/cA29ELsfsJ
— DAILY POST 🇳🇬 (@dailypost_ng) May 29, 2025
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