US President Donald Trump pushed back Wednesday on a new acronym making the Wall Street rounds to describe a way to profit from his fitful negotiating style, Taco, short for “Trump always chickens out”.
Trump, who was evidently not aware of the term when asked about it in the Oval Office by a reporter, responded with equal parts sarcasm and indignation.
The Taco trade refers to an investment strategy that benefits from the rise in share prices after the US president relents.
“Oh, isn’t that nice. I’ve never heard that,” he said, referring to the term first coined by a Financial Times columnist. “You mean because I reduced China from the 145 per cent that I said, down to 100, and then down to another number, and I said you have to open up your whole country?”
“And because I gave the European Union a 50 per cent tax tariff and they called up and they said, ‘Please let’s meet right now, please let’s meet right now,’” he added. “You call that chickening out?”
Trump then asked rhetorically whether it would be better if he instead maintained tariff levels “at a ridiculous high” like 145 per cent tariff imposed on China.
