This Taco gives Trump indigestion, so watch out

The fear of being seen as chicken has trade implications.

- Timothy L. O'Brien

Mr Donald Trump relished his favourite versions of tacos during his first presidential term.

"The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill," he tweeted in early 2016, sharing a photo of himself chowing down on a large serving at his desk. "I love Hispanics!"

These days, tacos are not President Trump's thing. More precisely, the version cooked up by a Financial Times columnist, Mr Robert Armstrong, is not his thing.

Mr Armstrong, noting that Mr Trump has repeatedly backed away from some of his fiercest tariff threats, dubbed this phenomenon "Taco" — Trump Always Chickens Out. Taco-savvy traders were making money embracing that reality, Mr Armstrong observed.

It is not a reality Mr Trump is ready to embrace himself, though.

"That's a nasty question," he told a reporter who asked about the Taco moniker at a White House press briefing last week. "Don't ever say what you said. That's a nasty question... To me, that's the nastiest question."

Mr Trump, who fashions himself a brilliant dealmaker and strategist despite ample evidence to the contrary, is, of course, always going to bristle at the notion that he is a chicken — and a predictable one at that.

He also routinely peddles himself as an infallible winner, so the nastiest question is also one that speculates about whether he is mired in a losing streak. His tariff policy, unleashed on allies and competitors alike, has been rolled out on a see-saw and riddled with economically damaging ineptitude.

Mr Trump will never acknowledge any of that, which is to be expected. But it also may be wise to consider this Taco-fuelled moment as something other than a light-hearted interlude in an otherwise tragicomic policy miasma.