What does TACO mean in reference to Trump? Why the phrase is resurfacing
A four-letter acronym that started as a way to describe President Donald Trump's tariff policies has morphed into a viral social media phrase, much to his ire.
Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong coined the term "TACO trade" in May to describe how many investors responded to Trump's whiplash tariff policies.
"TACO," an acronym that stands for "Trump always chickens out," has since become a sweeping term criticizing Trump. Social media users have taken to creating memes and artificial intelligence-generated images depicting the phrase.
Trump himself hit back at a reporter who asked about the term on May 28, calling it "a nasty question."
Here's what to know about the phrase and how it has been reignited in political discourse after the U.S. carried out strikes in Iran.
What does TACO mean? Where the phrase comes from
TACO stands for "Trump always chickens out."
Armstrong coined the term after the Trump administration issued tariffs on imports from worldwide trade partners in early April before reversing course on the policies a week later.
"The US administration does not have a very high tolerance for market and economic pressure, and will be quick to back off when tariffs cause pain," Armstrong said in a May 2 article. "This is the Taco theory: Trump Always Chickens Out."
In an interview with NPR, Armstrong said he came up with the phrase as a shorthand "so I didn't have to reexplain it every time that it came up."
"I just tried to think of a catchy acronym, and TACO happened to be the most kind of amusing one that I could think of," he said.
What does Trump think of the TACO acronym?
Trump fired back at a reporter asking about the TACO phrase in a White House press conference on May 28.
"Oh, I chicken out. Isn't that nice? I've never heard that," Trump said during the exchange, before defending his decisions on tariffs.
"Six months ago, this country was stone cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country that people didn't think it was going survive," Trump said. "And you ask a nasty question like that. It's called negotiation."
TACO chatter reignites amid US strikes on Iran
After the U.S. military bombed three Iranian nuclear sites on June 21, some supporters have taken to social media to assert that the attack is evidence against the "TACO" theory.
Some Trump backers say his follow-through on the attack, which came after he issued warnings to the country, disproves the belief that he "always chickens out." Others have suggested the bombings were in spite of the "TACO" nickname.
"Have to wonder, did we bomb Iran because someone called Trump TACO?" one person wrote on X.
Actor John Cusack opined on social media that the Iran attack "was a bombing for ego − to get back at people calling him weak."
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Paste BN
Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for Paste BN. She can be reached at melina.khan@usatoday.com.