Trump Responds Angrily to Question About Wall Street’s ‘TACO Trade,’ Meaning ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’ on His Tariff Threats: ‘It’s Called Negotiation’

At a White House press briefing Wednesday, President Trump was asked about a new term circulating on Wall Street: The “TACO trade,” which stands for “Trump always chickens out” when it has come to carrying out his threats to impose high tariffs on foreign countries.

Trump, who said he had not heard the term before, lashed out at the reporter who asked him about it. “Don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question,” Trump said. “To me, that’s the nastiest question.”

The origin of “TACO trade” is credited to Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong, who cited it in a May 2 article. As described by the New York Times, it “has been adopted by some to describe the pattern in which markets tumble after Mr. Trump makes tariff threats, only to rebound just as sharply when he relents and gives countries more time to negotiate deals.”

At the briefing Wednesday, CNBC White House correspondent Megan Casella asked, “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?”

“I chicken out? I’ve never heard that. You mean because I reduced [tariffs on] China from 145% that I said, down to 100 and then down to another number?” Trump said at the briefing. Currently, Trump’s tariffs on China goods is set at 30%.

Last week, Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on goods from the European Union effective June 1 — before postponing that to July 9 to allow for more time to negotiate with European trading partners.

“It’s called negotiation,” Trump said. “You set a number. And if you go down — you know, if I set a number, a ridiculous high number, and I go down a little bit, you know, a little bit, they want me to hold that number, 145% tariff. Even I said, ‘Man, that really got up.’ You know how it got [up]? Because of fentanyl and many other things. And you added it up. I said, ‘Where are we now?’ ‘We’re at 145%.’ I said, ‘Woo, that’s high. That’s high’… We were very nice to China… We were basically going cold turkey with China because the tariff was so high.”

The exchange occurred during Trump’s swearing-in ceremony for former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. He announced that he was naming Pirro to the post after losing support in the Senate for his initial choice, Ed Martin, over Martin’s views about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Watch Trump’s response to the question about the “TACO trade”: