President Donald Trump rejected the Wall Street term "TACO" (Trump Always Chickens Out) over his habit of backing off tariff threats Wednesday during a press conference at the Oval Office.
"Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the 'TACO trade,'" a reporter started to ask the president. "They're saying, 'Trump always chickens out' on your tariff threats, and that's why markets are higher this week. What's your response to that?"
“I chicken out?" Trump said, while he took questions from the press following Jeanine Pirro wearing-in ceremony as interim U.S. attorney for D.C. "Oh, I’ve never heard that."
Trump added, referring to the imported Chinese good tariffs he imposed, "You mean because I reduced China from 145%, that I set, down to 100 and then to another number?”
Some Wall Street analysts have described the term "TACO” trades, coined by a Financial Times columnist, to describe how markets fall after Trump's tariff threats and then shoot back up after the president delays the tariffs to give countries more time to negotiate deals.
This week, the president delayed implementing additional 50% tariffs on the European Union (EU) until July 9, giving the country-bloc more time to negotiate a potential deal.
"You call that chickening out," Trump bristled. “It’s called negotiation."
“Don’t ever say what you say,” Trump lashed out at the reporter. “That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.”
