Donald Trump goes on unhinged rant after being called 'chicken' over trade war
The US president was asked about the new acronym that's been coined to mock his trade policies amid high tariff rates on other nations, but he was not impressed
Donald Trump has vehemently slammed the new acronym - TACO - that's been devised to ridicule his trade policies amid elevated tariff rates on other countries.
At a press briefing today, Trump faced questions about the TACO trade, a term coined by The Financial Times' Robert Armstrong, which stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out," following recent market upheavals.
When a journalist mentioned the term, an incensed Trump retorted: "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."
Last week, Trump hinted he might levy a 50% tax on goods from the European Union starting in June but postponed the tariff increase until July 9, allowing time for discussions while keeping the standard 10% tariff in place.
"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?", reports the Irish Star.
Trump then boasted about America being the "hottest country in the world" and castigated the reporter who asked the question.
"You know, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. I went to Saudi Arabia, the king told me, he said 'we have the hottest country in the world right now'," Trump proclaimed.
"Six months ago this country was stone cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country people didn't think was going to survive and you ask a nasty question like that."
Trump defended his tactics, which some detractors have branded as "chickening out," by claiming it is simply an astute manoeuvre in negotiations, pointing to China as a prime example.
Trump reiterated his strategy of escalating Chinese product tariffs to an unprecedented 145% before lowering them to 30% to begin a 90-day negotiation period.
"I said 'where are we now?' We're at 145%, I said 'woo, that's high, that's high'...we were basically going cold turkey with China, we were doing no business, because of the tariff, because it was so high," Trump asserted.
He proceeded to berate the journalist who had the audacity to ask the question.
"But don't ever say what you said, that's a nasty question, to me, that's the nastiest question," Trump fumed.
Trump then claimed that without the daunting 50% tariff he imposed, EU officials would not even entertain negotiations, despite often facing criticism for being "too tough."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Insane moment Elon Musk 'SHOVED' Trump's treasury secretary Scott Bessent during screaming match
Elon Musk 's swift departure from his signature Department of Government Efficiency and the White House was escalated by an outburst that turned violent, according to a high-profile insider. Former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon told that Musk's turbulent time in the White House was marred when he physically 'shoved' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after he was confronted over wild promises to save the administration 'a trillion dollars'. 'Scott Bessent called him out and said, 'You promised us a trillion dollars (in cuts), and now you're at like $100 billion, and nobody can find anything, what are you doing?'' the prominent MAGA figure revealed. 'And that's when Elon got physical. It's a sore subject with him. 'It wasn't an argument, it was a physical confrontation. Elon basically shoved him.' Bannon said the physical altercation came as the two billionaires moved from the Oval Office to outside Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' office, and then outside the National Security Advisor's office. 'Trump 100%' sided with Bessent after the clash, he added. 'I don't think Bessent has any bad blood, but he's got a job to do and he's going to do it.' The revelation of a confrontation between the pair was confirmed by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday. 'It's no secret President Trump has put together a team of people who are incredibly passionate about the issues impacting our country', she said in a statement to 'Disagreements are a normal part of any healthy policy process, and ultimately everyone knows they serve at the pleasure of President Trump.' Musk's time in the Trump White House was scheduled to only last five months, but it comes the same week he broke ranks by publicly trashing the administration's 'Big Beautiful' domestic bill. As Musk's time at the White House came to a close, Bessent took to his X platform to publicly thank the Tesla CEO on his way out, saying he did 'very important work' and said he was 'committed to not letting the bureaucracy slow it down' now Musk is gone. The revelations of the Musk Bessant clash follow an explosive New York Times report that alleged Musk was using a cocktail of drugs on the campaig n trail including ketamine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. Bannon added that Musk also lost status in Trump's orbit when it was leaked to the New York Times in March that the billionaire was preparing to receive top-secret military briefings on China, which Trump abruptly stopped. The former chief strategist in Trump's first administration said the mounting issues with DOGE and the China briefings led to Musk losing face in the White House. 'The president backed (Bessent) just like the president didn't allow the briefing on China,' he said. 'People in the administration and the White House realized he didn't have any idea what he's doing. 'They cauterized the damage.' Bannon said the president's decision to block Musk from receiving briefings on China 'made (Musk) realize that Trump was going to back his cabinet.' 'That's the inflection point, you see Elon all changed from that moment.' The fight between Musk and Bessent was initially reported in April, however the extent of the alleged physicality of the clash was not previously known. Bannon said Musk's alleged shortcomings with DOGE were exacerbated when Trump gave his State of the Union address earlier this year, when the president listed through millions of allegedly fraudulent Social Security recipients aged over 100. Despite Musk claiming to have found a scandal, it was later alleged that these were primarily due to an accounting error and no significant money was sent to these recipients. 'Not one penny was ever shown to have been sent to these people,' Bannon said. 'Is anyone trying to talk to Elon now? No.' Musk's departure from the White House comes as the Trump administration is grappling with its 'Big Beautiful Bill' in Congress. The billionaire broke ranks earlier this week as he trashed the bill for its spending increases, which Musk fumed had 'undermined' the work he had done at DOGE. But Bannon blamed the fallout from the bill squarely on Musk's shoulders, saying the White House and Congressional Republicans relied on him to cancel out the spending with his DOGE cuts and he didn't deliver. 'The political class on Capitol hill willingly got behind a pied piper and wasted five months,' he said. 'The people at fault here are Congress,' he continued. 'They wanted to have a fairy godmother come in and wave a magic wand and say, its all fraud, and get them off the hook. 'Particularly (Speaker) Johnson… they didn't invite Musk to Capitol hill because they think he's politically radioactive, and they all lined up and didn't do the work on these bills... There's no cuts.' Bannon insisted that he was a supporter of the DOGE mission and said 'we have to cut out every penny we can', but felt Musk failed to live up to the promise. With the nation's finances set to fall under the spotlight as Congress works to pass the 'Big Beautiful Bill', Bannon said the most pressing crisis will be the impact on the bond markets, and said the fallout could become a 'Liz Truss moment.' 'This is a crisis, unless we get our arms around this we're going to have a Liz Truss moment.' Bannon clarified that he did not mean the crisis could bring Trump down in the way that it did with the former UK Prime Minister, but warned that the looming financial fallout could have the same impact on the markets that her bungled premiership had. 'Where is the fraud? The Pentagon is a cesspool of fraud, where is it? Where are the criminal referrals?' he added.
Reuters
20 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump's multi-pronged attack on Harvard explained
May 30 (Reuters) - The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is waging a campaign against Harvard University, the country's oldest and richest school, across multiple fronts, including funding freezes, investigations and threats to the school's tax-exempt status. The president says he's trying to force change at Harvard - and other top-level universities across the U.S. - because they have been captured by leftist "woke" thought and become bastions of antisemitism. The Trump administration has opened numerous investigations into Harvard. Some are looking at threats against Jewish students and faculty after pro-Palestinian protests broke out following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent Israeli military actions in Gaza. Others are probing if Harvard discriminates based on sex and gender, along with the school's ties to foreign governments and international students. Harvard and other universities say Trump's attacks are threats to freedom of speech, freedom of academics and the schools' very existence. Here are the main avenues Trump's administration is using to take on Harvard: The Trump administration in April sent a letter to Harvard, opens new tab demanding it make far-reaching changes in how it operates. Harvard's President Alan Garber publicly rejected the demands, saying they amounted to ceding control of the university to the government. Hours after Garber rejected the demands, the Trump administration announced it was freezing more than $2 billion in federal contracts and grants with Harvard, which mostly fund scientific and medical research. A total of some $3 billion in funding has now been frozen by the Trump administration after more blocks were announced. Those were mainly through frozen National Institutes of Health grants along with blocked monies from eight different federal agencies and the Centers for Disease Control. Harvard is fighting the funding cuts in court. Trump in May said he's considering taking previously awarded grant money for scientific and engineering research away from Harvard and giving it to trade schools. The Trump administration in May revoked Harvard's ability to enroll international students and said it was forcing current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal immigration status. Harvard sued over that action, and a judge has temporarily blocked the administration's action. More than a quarter of Harvard's students come from outside the U.S., and they serve as a vital revenue source at the Ivy League school and at hundreds of other colleges across the U.S. In late May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration would start "aggressively" revoking visas issued to Chinese students attending Harvard and all U.S. schools. Republican concerns over Chinese students in the U.S. are not new - many have expressed worries China is manipulating Harvard and other universities to gain access to U.S. advanced technology. The action on Chinese students is a direct blow to Harvard's strong links to China, and it has left Chinese students in a legal limbo as they contemplate their academic futures. There are two main ways the Trump administration is using the tax system to attack Harvard. First, they are threatening the university's tax-exempt status, which experts say likely saves the school hundreds of millions of dollars each year. It is unclear, however, if the Internal Revenue Service would rescind that tax exemption, or if it would hold up before courts. Most universities, including Harvard, are exempt from federal income tax because they are deemed to be charitable organizations operated exclusively for public educational purposes. The exemption also allows people to make tax-deductible donations to such organizations, a valuable source of income for colleges with wealthy alumni. The second prong on this front is language in Trump's massive spending bill that is before Congress. It would drastically hike taxes that Harvard and other elite schools pay on the profits their massive endowment investments make. Critics say that would weaken the ability of Harvard and other rich schools to provide generous financial aid packages to poorer students.
The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
China has ‘totally violated' its trade agreement' with the US, says Trump
Donald Trump declared that China has 'totally violated its agreement' against the US on trade just two weeks after the countries reached a deal, raising fears that the trade war will continue to rattle the global economy. 'I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation,' Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning. 'Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US.' Trump's post follows comments from the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, on Fox News that trade talks with China 'are a bit stalled', though he said that there will be more discussions with Chinese officials in the coming weeks. The White House has not offered any specific details on what has stalled trade talks. US stock markets turned negative after the news. On Friday morning, the S&P was down 0.1% and Nasdaq was down 0.3%. It's been nearly four months since Trump first put a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports in February, the start of the trade dispute that would escalate in the spring. After raising rates to 20% in March, a full-out trade war began with Trump imposing 145% tariffs on China, and China placing 125% tariffs on American goods in response. A truce was announced on 12 May, with Trump decreasing tariffs to 30% and China reducing US tariffs down to 10%. The White House called the deal 'historic' and said it 'set a path for future discussions to open market access for American exports'. But Trump's post on Friday points to the continued instability amid the president's trade war, which has shaken markets around the world for weeks. Investors appeared somewhat relieved by news late on Wednesday that a panel of judges on the US international court of trade blocked a bulk of Trump's broad tariffs, including country-specific import duties such as ones placed on China. But within 24 hours, a federal appeals court paused the ruling, allowing Trump's tariffs to stay in place. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion It's unclear what impact the legal whiplash will have on Trump's trade negotiations with foreign counterparts. The trade court had agreed with groups that sued the White House and argued the president was improperly using federal trade law to implement tariffs, and that Trump should be required to get Congress's approval for his broader tariffs.
