US Politics
Wall St’s TACO tariff code is good for Trump, ‘If he can take the win,’ ex-staffer reveals to CNN
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While Wall Street’s “TACO trade” strategy has riled President Donald Trump, his former White House staffer argues it might actually be a “win” for the president.
In the wake of Trump’s tariff volatility, Wall Street investors are now engaging in TACO trade: buying stock in the slump, knowing that the president’s backtracking will inevitably cause a stock market rebound.
During an appearance on Friday’s episode of CNN News Central, former White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that the net effect of the TACO trades has been positive for the president.
“Trump was handed three huge political wins this week, if he can accept them and just take the win,” she told host John Berman.
The acronym, which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” a dig at the president’s on-again, off-again approach to tariffs, has been adopted by financial analysts after Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong coined it.
The conservative pundit commented on a challenging week for the president, following Elon Musk’s departure from the White House and the U.S. Court of International Trade’s decision to block Trump’s tariffs, which an appeals court temporarily reinstated on Thursday.
“And then finally, TACO, he’s going to hate this,” she said.
“We all know what we saw, how he reacted to the reporter’s question,” Griffin added, making reference to the president rebuking a reporter in the Oval Office Wednesday for asking him a “nasty” question about the new Wall Street moniker.
“But that is huge that Wall Street traders have actually learned how to sort of call Trump’s bluff. So he’s not able to cause this sort of market volatility that we saw in the first few months,” she added. “Those are all good things in the long run for Donald Trump’s economy and for his future agenda. But all of them look like losses, but actually are wins if he can simply take the win.”
Last week, Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on goods from the European Union from June 1, sending stocks and the dollar sliding. Two days later, Trump said he’d delay imposing the levies until July 9, with markets reopening Tuesday well in the green.
After levying 125 percent tariffs on China earlier this month, Washington and Beijing agreed to a 90-day suspension. Stock markets surged after the announcement.
The president defended his decision Wednesday, stating it was a “negotiation” tactic, not a flip-flop.
