Trump irritated that his team didn’t tell him about ‘TACO,’ sources say

There was a reason for President Donald Trump’s particularly caustic response when a reporter asked him Wednesday about a new term coined about the president’s tariffs: TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out.

There was a reason for President Donald Trump’s particularly scathing response when a reporter asked him Wednesday about a new term coined about the president’s tariffs: TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out. He had not yet heard the term, according to a senior White House official who acknowledged to CNN that the president was caught off guard. Trump had said as much at the time, saying “I’ve never heard that” before calling it the “nastiest question.” “He thought the reporter was calling him a chicken,” the official said, adding that Trump was “reasonably” frustrated with the phrase. The acronym was coined in early May by a Financial Times columnist and is now used as shorthand by some on Wall Street to indicate that traders shouldn’t fret too much about Trump’s tariff threats, since he usually backs down. Trump also vented his frustrations to his team following the exchange, sources familiar with the matter said. He was not only irked by the term itself but also by his team’s failure to tell him about the phrase gaining traction. It’s a window into what may offend Trump the most: He took clear umbrage with the idea that people perceive his tariff adjustments as weakness. Trump’s real-time response also demonstrated his view that the shorthand diminished what he sees as an essential negotiating tactic on trade. He explained on Wednesday that sometimes he sets “a ridiculous high number” for tariff rates and then relents if other nations give in to his demands.