Trump dismisses question about 'chickening out' on tariffs as 'nastiest'

President Trump on Wednesday dismissed a reporter’s inquiry about a derisive new Wall Street acronym to describe his trade policies, saying it was “the nastiest question” that the journalist could ask.

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump was asked about a Financial Times columnist describing Mr. Trump’s trade policy as “TACO,” which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” The Financial Times columnist said the acronym is gaining steam on Wall Street to describe Mr. Trump’s roller-coaster tariff policies. 

When confronted by a journalist at the White House Wednesday about the unflattering term, the president bristled.

“I have never heard that,” Mr. Trump said. “You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I sent 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% tariff and they called up and said, ‘Please, let’s meet right now.’”

“You call that chickening out?” Mr. Trump replied. 

“But don’t ever say what you said,” he told the reporter. “That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.” 

Mr. Trump then ticked off the trillions of dollars in investments pledged by Middle Eastern countries and insisted his approach to tariffs has been an effective tool to start negotiations. 

The president has moved back and forth on his tariffs, repeatedly threatening them only to pull back or delay them. In February, he threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada but then delayed imposing them. He then implemented sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner on April 2, but a week later he announced there would be a 90-day reprieve and lowered the tariffs to 10%. 

Mr. Trump last week said he would impose a 50% tariff on the European Union starting in June, but days later announced he would delay those tariffs until July 9 so the two sides could hold negotiations.