Nobody likes being called a chicken—especially not the president.
President Trump lashed out on Wednesday after a reporter asked him about the so-called “TACO Trade,” which is short for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
“Don’t ever say what you said,” Trump responded. That’s a nasty question.”
The phrase, coined by a Financial Times columnist to describe bets on the president’s moves to announce scary tariffs before retreating, has been gaining steam on Wall Street, especially after he temporarily walked back Friday’s threats of 50% tariffs against the European Union over the long weekend.
The TACO Trade sure wasn’t working on Wednesday: The Dow was down 170 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 was down 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1%
Trump’s latest comments seemed to echo Marty McFly, the Back to the Future protagonist who couldn’t stand down from being called a chicken. Trump touted moves to ease the temperature after dialing up threats as a negotiation tactic.
“You call that chickening out?” Trump said. “It’s called negotiation.”
The key to poking fun at someone behind their back is keeping it that way. Trump finding out about the term could convince him to power ahead with stronger threats to defy the joke. That’d be very bad news for the stock market, and the broader economy.