‘Badge of Honor!’ CNBC Journo Says Trump ‘Did NOT Like’ Her ‘Nasty Question’ About Chickening Out

CNBC Washington Correspondent Megan Cassella said President Donald Trump “did not like” her question about a mocking Wall Street acronym, and called it a “badge of honor” that he labeled it a “nasty question.”

Trump took questions at a swearing-in ceremony for Jeanine Pirro in the Oval Office on Wednesday, during which Casella drew Trump’s ire for asking about the acronym “TACO” — short for “Trump Always Chickens Out” when it comes to tariff showdowns.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNBC’s The Exchange, anchor Kelly Evans tossed to Casella live at the White House just after the event wrapped up, and asked her about Trump’s reaction after her report:

MEGAN CASSELLA: You might have heard the term “TACO trade” — Trump Always Chickens Out. That’s what some analysts, some commentators have been using to talk about this.

So I asked the president directly what’s his response to that and he had a long answer. Here’s just a piece of it. Take a listen.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It’s called negotiation. You set a number. And if you go down, you know, if I set a number at a ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, you know, a little bit, they want me to hold that number.

MEGAN CASSELLA: Kelly, he did not like this question, I can tell you, but he did go on to say that, especially when it comes to the EU and his backing off temporarily, at least of that 50% tariff threat, he says the EU wouldn’t be here today negotiating if it weren’t for that.

Now, when he makes a deal with them for something much more reasonable, people will say, “Oh, he was chicken.”.

He says that’s so unbelievable. So getting the president’s take there on this this question of whether he’s bluffing too much and it’s hard to take seriously now on the global stage on these tariff threats.

…

KELLY EVANS: Right. Increase in taxes, not necessarily the debt and deficit in back. So, TACO, Trump always chickens out. That’s the phrase.

MEGAN CASSELLA: That’s the phrase. It’s not widely known yet, but you have seen it pick up in the press this week. It’s why I wanted to ask him about it.

Wall Street loves an acronym, as you know, Kelly, and the idea here is just, yes, the markets will go down when he makes a threat only to rebound often even higher once the threat is back off the table.

And so far where we are in sort of this tariff limbo right now, many, many of, if not most of the tariff threats that have been leveled so far are not yet in effect.

That could be a different story six months from But the question now being will other countries still take him seriously and come to the negotiating table if this sort of pattern continues

KELLY EVANS: I hear he called that a “nasty question,” Megan.

MEGAN CASSELLA: He sure did! A badge of honor, I guess.

KELLY EVANS: Yeah (LAUGHS) well–. Megan, thanks very much for bringing us that recap.

Watch above via CNBC’s The Exchange.