"Trump Stumbles as Reporter Exposes Market’s Mockery of His Tariff Tactics"

 

Trump Flounders After Reporter Confronts Him With Damaging "TACO Trade" Question

Donald Trump suffered a public meltdown after being confronted by a reporter who hit him with a blunt and humiliating question about his track record on tariffs.

"Mr. President," the reporter began, "Wall Street analysts have coined a new term—the TACO trade. It stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. They're saying markets are up this week because investors know you won’t follow through on your tariff threats. How do you respond?"

Trump appeared confused. “I kick out?” the 78-year-old asked.

“Chicken out,” the reporter clarified.

“Oh… Isn’t that—I chicken out? I’ve never heard that,” Trump muttered.

The term TACO trade, recently highlighted in The Financial Times, refers to a market phenomenon where Trump threatens aggressive tariffs, markets react negatively, and he quickly backs down—only to spin the retreat as a victory.

Trump, visibly irritated, launched into a rambling and disjointed monologue in response.

"You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to a hundred and then down to another number?” he said. “I said you have to open up your whole country and because, uh..."

He then pivoted to the European Union, claiming, “I gave the European Union a 50% tariff, and they called and said, ‘Please, let’s meet right now.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I’ll give you till July—’ I even asked them, ‘What’s the date?’ They weren’t willing to meet, and after I did what I did, they said, ‘We’ll meet any time you want.’”

“You call that chickening out?” Trump demanded. “We have $14 trillion now invested... When Biden didn’t have practically anything. This country was dying.”

Trump’s response then veered wildly into unrelated territory:

“You know we have the hottest country anywhere in the world? I went to Saudi Arabia. The king told me, ‘You’ve got the hottest—’ We have the hottest country in the world right now. Six months ago this country was stone cold dead.”

He continued, “It’s called negotiating. You set a number, and if you go down... If I set a number at a ridiculously high number and I go down a little bit—they want me to hold that number. 145% tariff.”

Even Trump seemed taken aback by his own numbers: “I said, ‘Woo, that’s high.’ You know how it got up? Because of fentanyl and many other things...”

He insisted, “We were very nice to China. I don’t know if they’re going to be nice to us, but we were very nice to China. And in many ways, I think we really helped China tremendously.”

According to Trump, the tariffs brought trade with China to a halt: “We were basically going cold turkey. But don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.”

The reality, however, is stark: Trump’s erratic tariff policies have done significant damage to the U.S. economy. They’ve spiked prices for consumers, fueled uncertainty in the markets, and led to job losses across multiple industries. Rather than bringing nations to heel, his moves have made the U.S. appear unreliable on the global stage and discouraged long-term foreign investment.

The term TACO trade is more than a jab—it’s a reflection of a repeated pattern. Trump talks tough, markets react, and he backs down under pressure. For the sake of the economy and global stability, let’s hope he keeps chickening out.