US President Donald Trump has hit back at claims of regularly taking a step back on tariff threats, insisting that his moves are part of a strategic negotiation process rather than weakness.
Trump took particular offence to the suggestion that he backs down after dramatic tariff announcements, a pattern known as the “TACO” trade, short for Trump Always Chickens Out, was coined by the Financial Times’ Robert Armstrong.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump was visibly annoyed when asked about the nickname, rejecting the idea outright.
“You call that chickening out? It’s called negotiation,” he said, adding that he sets a “ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, you know, a little bit.”
The president defended his tactic of announcing steep import taxes, such as a 145 per cent tariff on Chinese goods, only to later reduce the figure, as happened recently when the rate was cut to 30 per cent during a 90-day negotiation window.
A similar move came just last week, when Trump threatened a 50 per cent tariff on goods from the European Union starting in June, only to delay the increase to July 9. For now, the baseline 10 per cent tariff remains in place while talks continue.
This strategy has become a hallmark of Trump’s trade approach, with similar episodes unfolding around cars, electronics and even his broad tariffs announced on 2 April, which were partially based on individual trade deficits with other nations.
Each announcement has sent markets reeling, with stocks typically dipping on the threat of tariffs before recovering when Trump eases off. The S&P 500 index, for instance, fell as much as 15 per cent earlier this year before clawing back gains and was up slightly as of Wednesday afternoon.
Despite the market swings and scepticism from economists, Trump claimed his methods have driven investment, saying they’ve led to $14 trillion in new investment in the United States, a figure that has yet to be fully backed by official data.
“Don’t ever say what you said,” Trump warned the reporter who raised the “chickening out” claim.
“To me, that’s the nastiest question.”
He also argued that the EU wouldn’t be coming to the negotiating table without his aggressive stance, saying, that he usually have the opposite problem of being "too tough.”
Trump took particular offence to the suggestion that he backs down after dramatic tariff announcements, a pattern known as the “TACO” trade, short for Trump Always Chickens Out, was coined by the Financial Times’ Robert Armstrong.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump was visibly annoyed when asked about the nickname, rejecting the idea outright.
“You call that chickening out? It’s called negotiation,” he said, adding that he sets a “ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, you know, a little bit.”
The president defended his tactic of announcing steep import taxes, such as a 145 per cent tariff on Chinese goods, only to later reduce the figure, as happened recently when the rate was cut to 30 per cent during a 90-day negotiation window.
A similar move came just last week, when Trump threatened a 50 per cent tariff on goods from the European Union starting in June, only to delay the increase to July 9. For now, the baseline 10 per cent tariff remains in place while talks continue.
This strategy has become a hallmark of Trump’s trade approach, with similar episodes unfolding around cars, electronics and even his broad tariffs announced on 2 April, which were partially based on individual trade deficits with other nations.
Each announcement has sent markets reeling, with stocks typically dipping on the threat of tariffs before recovering when Trump eases off. The S&P 500 index, for instance, fell as much as 15 per cent earlier this year before clawing back gains and was up slightly as of Wednesday afternoon.
Despite the market swings and scepticism from economists, Trump claimed his methods have driven investment, saying they’ve led to $14 trillion in new investment in the United States, a figure that has yet to be fully backed by official data.
“Don’t ever say what you said,” Trump warned the reporter who raised the “chickening out” claim.
“To me, that’s the nastiest question.”
He also argued that the EU wouldn’t be coming to the negotiating table without his aggressive stance, saying, that he usually have the opposite problem of being "too tough.”
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