U.S. President Donald Trump speaks next to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 26, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
The morning newsletter for the Wall Street Journal needled President Donald Trump for living up to the TACO nickname. TACO stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out."
Trump announced over the weekend that he was going to bomb a civilian power plant. It was a shocking detail that drew huge reactions across the world from leaders who described it as a serious escalation of the war in Iran. He then backed down, saying that he would hold up until the end of the week so a deal could be reached. Iran let ten oil ships move through the Strait of Hormuz as a "gift," Trump claimed.
As the week drew to a close, Trump said his deadline wasn't really firm. The new deadline is now April 6, after the Easter holiday weekend.
"If there is one constant in Trump’s Washington, it’s that his deadlines often don’t stick," the WSJ Politics newsletter said on Friday.
It's reminiscent of Trump's tariff threats in 2025, which is when the TACO nickname went viral. The Journal report recalled that Trump's frequently told Russia and Ukraine he'd have a decision in “two weeks.” It became a running joke too, because the "two weeks" meme is a frequent lie told by contractors in both construction and programming.
There have been a few cases of Trump meeting his self-imposed deadlines, such as when he told reporters he'd decide where he stands on bombing Iran in "two weeks" when he'd already made the decision and the operation began days following his statement.
"Trump has signaled he might be looking for an off-ramp to this year’s hostilities, but hopes of a military campaign that is both quick and decisive are fading," the report noted. "We should know more about how this will play out — in another two weeks."
Trump said that the war would only last four to six weeks. As the fourth week begins in what Trump called a “little stopover” of a conflict and "an excursion," both Iran and Trump's team have listed demands.
“The problem with the straits is this,” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. “Let’s say we do a great job. We say we got 99 percent. One percent is unacceptable, because one percent is a missile going into the hull of a ship that cost $1 billion.”
Trump announced last summer that his bombing had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program.