🔗 Trump Always Chickens Out
"Trump Always Chickens Out" (TACO) is a pejorative description of the perceived tendency of US president Donald Trump to make threats, only to later delay or renege on them as a way to increase time for negotiations and for markets to rebound. The phrase was popularized in May 2025 after the many threats and reversals during the trade war he initiated with his "Liberation Day" tariffs. On Wall Street, a TACO trade is buying stocks cheaply after a tariff announcement pushes stocks lower, then selling them at a profit after the tariffs are delayed or reduced and the market rebounds.
By 2026, TACO was also used for Trump's decisions in the realm of foreign policy, specifically his reversal of threats to annex Greenland, his attempt to find an abrupt exit for the escalating 2026 Iran War as global securities began to fall due to the rise in oil prices, and his last-minute ceasefire deal for the Iran War itself before the deadline for the American bombing campaign.