As fresh tariffs take effect, the ‘Taco Trump' meme turns into a weekly internet fiesta

Fast Company

2 days ago

Following last week's mainstream debut of the Wall Street-borne acronym TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out, high-ranking Democrats and random social media users alike have turned the taunt into a weekly celebration: Taco Tuesday. Just in time for a fresh round of tariffs.
Though the slogan had quietly circulated for weeks among stock traders navigating tariff turbulence, it hit critical mass on May 28, when a reporter asked Trump about it during a press conference. The president's nuclear response, a warning to not 'ever say what you said,' ended up Streisand Effect-ing the catchphrase into instant ubiquity. Democrats at the highest levels embraced it—including Rep. Eric Swalwell, who made a stilted TikTok about it, for which he was rightly roasted online —while millions of others simply wanted to know more. According to CNN's Harry Enten, by May 30, Google searches for 'Trump TACO' had shot up 9,900%.
If it weren't obvious enough from the press conference, a separate CNN report confirmed that the acronym got under Trump's skin. Apparently, the president later chewed out members of his team for not alerting him that the taco meme had gained traction, leaving him to find out in real time, in full public view. 'It clearly bothered him, primarily because it demonstrated a lack of understanding about how he actually utilizes those threats for leverage,' a source told CNN. 'But obviously he's not a guy who looks kindly on weakness, so the idea anyone would think that with respect to his actions isn't received well.'
Perhaps sensing how much the press conference blowup had stung Trump, both elected Democrats and random social media users went all in on the acronym. 'Taco Trump' memes retained an ambient internet presence throughout the week, before erupting on- and offline on Tuesday. Taking advantage of the existing cultural branding, Taco Tuesday, Trump critics including Rep. Jamie Raskin used the occasion of the first such day since the slogan's debut to drill down on their message.
On X and Bluesky, there was a fresh round of AI-generated taco imagery alternately depicting Trump as a chicken, a baby, a restauranteur, a reluctant diner, and, somewhat inexplicably, Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid movies. ('Tax on, tax off,' a caption reads.) Billy Baldwin, younger sibling of perennial Trump foe Alec Baldwin, couldn't resist tweeting some AI slop, while New Yorker artist Barry Blitt offered a decidedly non-AI take on the subject matter.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party commemorated the day by commissioning a taco truck to serve free meals near the Republican National Committee's headquarters in DC. Though the gesture risked convincing oblivious pedestrians that Trump himself was offering free tacos, it was meant to contrast Democrats' agenda with Trump's tariff tactics. 'With his idiotic trade policy,' DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement, 'he talks a big game, caves, and then leaves working families and small businesses to deal with the fallout.'
Making the celebration timelier, this 'Taco Tuesday' happened to fall on the day before Trump's latest tariff gambit —a whopping increase from 25 to 50% levies on steel and aluminum from nearly every country around the globe—went into effect. Senator Adam Schiff was sure to highlight the correlation in his post about the holiday on Bluesky.
As for Trump's defenders, the response has mainly been to brush off the taco stuff as ' cringey.' JD Vance quote-tweeted a post touting the Democrats' taco truck with a devastatingly dismissive caption, 'We have the lamest opposition in American history.' (Abhi Rahman, deputy communications director for the DNC, quickly responded to the tweet, telling Fox News, 'We understand that JD Vance, the cringiest VP in American history who cannot order a donut like a normal human being, prefers to take food away from people, including 40 million Americans whose SNAP benefits were just scrapped in the GOP budget.')
What gives Vance's eye-rolling response some heft is the fact that Trump hasn't offered any additional glimpses into his feelings about the acronym since that disastrous press conference. His anger was the reason that TACO took off; his silence on the matter since then has neutralized the power of posts that act as though Trump is actively livid about it at all times.
Given that there are now fresh tariffs to potentially back down from, though, and a standing appointment for calling out the pattern if Trump does, the meme might potentially give everyone something to taco 'bout for weeks to come.