Why Trump is so bothered by his new 'nasty' nickname as he vows to double down
President Donald Trump got testy with a reporter last week who asked him about a new acronym labeling his trade policy: Taco - Trump Always Chickens Out.
During a Wednesday back-and-forth in the Oval Office, Trump was asked about the term by CNBC's Megan Cassella, which had been coined in a column in early May by the Financial Times' Robert Armstrong.
Trump lashed out in an almost cartoonish way, akin to Michael J. Fox's Back to the Future character Marty McFly, whose famous line was, 'nobody calls me chicken!'
'Don't ever say what you said,' Trump told Cassella. 'That's a nasty question. To me that's the nastiest question,' the commander-in-chief fumed.
A former adviser who's known Trump for years explained to the Daily Mail just why the insult got under Trump's skin.
'Donald Trump is known for the "Art of the Deal," negotiations and strategy, and ultimately winning,' the adviser said. 'He has to win and he also - you never give up, you never give up.'
Trump's 1997 book The Art of the Deal, co-written by Tony Schwartz, helped turn the New York real estate developer into a brand.
'These tariffs and resetting the world's financial order, not to be hyperbolic, but at least the global trade dynamics, is not only an issue that he's really been focused on since the 80s, but is also going to be one of the lasting legacies of his presidency,' the ex-adviser pointed out.
Calling anyone a 'chicken' 'generally is an insult,' the source said, but it 'also completely goes in the face of the way he's viewing - he's into positive thinking - the way he's viewing these negotations.'
The president has doubled down on his tariff policy since the Oval Office confrontation.
He announced in Pittsburgh on Friday that he would double - from 25 percent to 50 percent - import taxes on steel, to help the domestic industry as a 'planned partnership' between Japan's Nippon and the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel comes together.
Later Friday he announced that he would be doubling the tariff on aluminum imports as well.
The administration is asking countries to submit their best proposals to combat Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs by this Wednesday, as the 90-day pause ends on July 8.
Only one trade deal has been fully inked thus far - the one with Great Britain.
'There's no way to convince him that he's losing,' the former adviser said. 'He's winning, no matter what, he's going to win.'
'I also think that because it comes from Wall Street itself, which is part of the elite ... that also pissed him off,' the source added. 'He's smarter than Wall Street, he's smarter than the Wall Street Journal, he's smarter than Bloomberg and he believes they're fundamentally wrong on this.'
Democrats believe the 'TACO' moniker is potent politics, with the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday branding a taco truck on Capitol Hill with a picture of Trump in a chicken suit.
The truck was located several blocks away from the Republican National Committee's headquarters in an effort to troll them.
'Donald Trump is like the bad boss we've all had - he comes up with dumb ideas, blames everybody else when they fail, and we all laugh behind his back,' DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.
'With his idiotic trade policy, he talks a big game, caves, and then leaves working families and small businesses to deal with the fallout,' Martin continued. 'Trump always chickens out - we're just bringing the tacos to match.'
The RNC dubbed the effort lame.
'LMFAO. This is the jankiest excuse for a taco truck I've ever seen,' the RNC's Communications Director Zach Parkinson told the Daily Mail via email. 'Are they going to be giving out free vasectomies again too?'
Parkinson was referencing a Planned Parenthood Great Rivers of St. Louis truck that made an appearance in August in Chicago alongside the Democratic National Convention.
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