'Serious question': Creator of viral Trump nickname fears he may tank economy out of spite

29 May

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace and Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong on MSNBC on May 29, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via MSNBC / YouTube)

Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong initially coined the acronym "TACO," which stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out," earlier this month. The acronym caught on and President Donald Trump snapped at a reporter who brought it up during a press conference this week. Now, Armstrong is worried of the implications.

During a Thursday panel discussion on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," conservative journalist Charlie Sykes opined that Trump may end up doubling down on his trade war as a means of proving the "TACO" nickname wrong, thus triggering a global recession in the process. Host Nicolle Wallace then pivoted from Sykes' point to ask Armstrong about whether there's truth to the theory that a "humiliated" Trump could end up permanently damaging the global economy out of spite. She also noted that Trump himself has given weight to the nickname by how frequently he changes his mind from one day to the next.

"The truth of the number of times that he blinked is a data point that exists in public," Wallace said. "We know no investigative journalist dug up the number of times Trump balked because of the poor reception to his tariffs. And they were announced. They were paused. They were raised. They were dropped. They were put back in. They were pulled off. 100 deals in 100 days. There were none. Now there's a framework for one with the UK and the beginning of talks in Switzerland with China. No framework, no deal."

Armstrong responded by saying he knew the "TACO" acronym was "kind of a dumb joke" but that it "stuck" because it has "an element of truth." However, he added that he didn't like the suggestion that his joke in a column could be the catalyst for a global recession due to the risk of angering a sensitive president.

"I meant to make a joke, not cause a recession. But there is a serious question here ... about a world in which you're not allowed to make fun of the president," Armstrong said. "He's the president! I am an inky-fingered hack making a dumb joke. I'm the one who's supposed to behave carefully around the president of the United States? How did we get here?"

Wallace countered that if the economy did slide into a recession, that it wouldn't be Armstrong's fault, but that it would be due to both Trump's policies and a failure of those around him to rein in his worst impulses. Armstrong then made a comparison to former President Joe Biden, and referenced reports that his inner circle kept the octogenarian president away from even other White House staffers to hide his condition.

"Treating the current president with kid gloves by his advisers or by the press or by anybody else is a bad idea. It was a bad idea with a Democrat. It's a bad idea with a Republican. we shouldn't do it," Armstrong said, adding that Biden at least had a "sense of humor" that would prevent him from causing economic harm over a joke.

Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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