Trump Rages at Reporter Asking ‘Nasty Question’ About Accusations He ‘Chicken Outs’ On Tariffs
President Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter on Wednesday over her “nasty question” on critics accusing him of “always chickening out.”
At the Wednesday swearing-in ceremony for Jeanine Pirro as Washington, D.C.’s top prosecutor, Trump took some questions and at one point was educated on the term TACO, meaning “Trump Always Chickens Out.” The term was reportedly first coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong, and it’s since picked up steam with Wall Streeters who believe Trump’s tariff negotiations first tank the markets, leading to him inevitably backing off.
“Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the taco trade. They’re saying Trump always chickens out on your tariff threats. And that’s why markets are higher this week. What’s your response to that?” CNBC White House correspondent Megan Casella asked Trump.
Trump said he’d never heard the term and pushed back against the accusation, touting his tariffs against China and the foreign investment agreements he’s gotten done in his first months in office. The president declared he turned the United States from “stone cold dead” economically under former President Joe Biden to the “hottest country in the world” today.
The president said:
You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set 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% tax tariff? And they called up and they said, please, let’s meet right now, please, let’s meet right now. And I said, okay, I’ll give you till June 9th. I actually asked them, I said, what’s the date? Because they weren’t willing to meet. And after I did what I did, they said, we’ll meet any time you want. And we have an end date of July 9th. You call that chickening out? Because we have $14 trillion now invested, committed to investing when Biden didn’t have practically anything.
Trump lashed out at the reporter over what he called a “nasty question,” telling her to never repeat it.
“Six months ago, this county was stone-cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country– people didn’t think it was going to survive, and you ask a nasty question like that. It’s called negotiation,” he said.
Before moving on, he added, “Don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question… To me, that’s the nastiest question.”
Casella later called the “nasty question” remark from the president a “badge of honor.”
Watch above via Fox News.
