President Trump on Wednesday criticized an emerging Wall Street trading philosophy in response to his ever-shifting tariff policies.
The term “TACO trade” — apparently first coined by the Financial Times early this month — has been flying around Wall Street in recent weeks and entered even more into the public consciousness over the past few days.
The acronym stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” The pattern is clear: Trump announces heavy tariffs, sending markets reeling until he backs off, sending markets flying.
A reporter asked Trump at the White House on Wednesday for his response to the school of thought. He did not appear to be aware of the acronym, but was also not pleased to learn its meaning.
“Isn’t that nice … I’ve never heard that,” he said, before launching into a defense of recent moves. Earlier in May, the US reached a detente with China after the countries imposed massive tariffs on each other. Then last week, Trump announced massive 50% tariffs on EU imports, only to backtrack a couple days later and push back his deadline for more negotiating time.
“After I did what I did, they said, ‘We’ll meet anytime you want,'” Trump said of the EU. He said of China, “In many ways, I think we really helped China tremendously.”
“Don’t ever say what you said,” Trump then told the reporter. “That’s a nasty question.”