I’m sure you’ve all seen this:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants the world to know he’s no “chicken” just because he’s repeatedly backed off high tariff threats.
The U.S. Republican president’s tendency to levy extremely high import taxes and then retreat has created what’s known as the “TACO” trade, an acronym coined by The Financial Times’ Robert Armstrong that stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” Markets generally sell off when Trump makes his tariff threats and then recover after he backs down.
Trump was visibly offended when asked about the phrase Wednesday and rejected the idea that he’s “chickening out,” saying that the reporter’s inquiry was “nasty.”
“You call that chickening out?” Trump said. “It’s called negotiation,” adding that he sets a “ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, you know, a little bit” until the figure is more reasonable.
The reason it will stick is because it’s true. The reason Democrats should push it is because it attacks a supposed strength of Trump. He’s marketed as a master negotiator, and he spent years appearing on everyone’s TV in a show where he played a successful businessman. If he’s shown that he’s a predicable failure by (supposedly) savvy Wall Street investors, that undermines his “Art of the Deal” reputation.
He’s clearly rattled by the nickname, and if the press were worth a shit, they’d keep asking him about it.
I’m doing some eldercare today, so open thread.
