According to published reports, TACO "Trump Always Chickens Out" is a pejorative description of the perceived tendency of United States president Donald Trump to make threats, only to later delay or renege on them as a way to increase time for negotiations, allow markets to rebound, and avert backlash.
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.
In 2025 and 2026, TACO was also used to describe the 80-year old Trump's statements threatening to annex Greenland, and his efforts to negotiate a last-minute ceasefire deal with Iran before his deadline for initiating an American bombing campaign.
When the president barred Politico, CNN, and MS Now from the White House, the press pool boycotted the president, leaving him without his usual TV coverage. On this week’s On the Media, why media outlets finally banded together. Plus, the legal debate over journalists’ access to the country's highest office. Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger get together to chat about The White House Press Pool’s walkout, why it took so long for them to take collective action, and what it means for the relationship between Donald Trump and the media. Brooke Gladstone speaks with Roger Parloff, senior editor at Lawfare, about about the Trump administration’s legal justifications for banning outlets, and what he learned from attending the hearings this week. Brooke also sits down with Sonja West, professor of the first amendment at the University of Georgia School of Law, about the history of press access being granted, and denied by the White House.
The White House on Mute
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media
