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Why Trump is so bothered by his new 'nasty' nickname as he vows to double down

Why Trump is so bothered by his new 'nasty' nickname as he vows to double down

Daily Mail​03-06-2025

President Donald Trump got testy with a reporter last week who asked him about a new acronym labeling his trade policy: Taco - Trump Always Chickens Out.
During a Wednesday back-and-forth in the Oval Office, Trump was asked about the term by CNBC's Megan Cassella, which had been coined in a column in early May by the Financial Times' Robert Armstrong.
Trump lashed out in an almost cartoonish way, akin to Michael J. Fox's Back to the Future character Marty McFly, whose famous line was, 'nobody calls me chicken!'
'Don't ever say what you said,' Trump told Cassella. 'That's a nasty question. To me that's the nastiest question,' the commander-in-chief fumed.
A former adviser who's known Trump for years explained to the Daily Mail just why the insult got under Trump's skin.
'Donald Trump is known for the "Art of the Deal," negotiations and strategy, and ultimately winning,' the adviser said. 'He has to win and he also - you never give up, you never give up.'
Trump's 1997 book The Art of the Deal, co-written by Tony Schwartz, helped turn the New York real estate developer into a brand.
'These tariffs and resetting the world's financial order, not to be hyperbolic, but at least the global trade dynamics, is not only an issue that he's really been focused on since the 80s, but is also going to be one of the lasting legacies of his presidency,' the ex-adviser pointed out.
Calling anyone a 'chicken' 'generally is an insult,' the source said, but it 'also completely goes in the face of the way he's viewing - he's into positive thinking - the way he's viewing these negotations.'
The president has doubled down on his tariff policy since the Oval Office confrontation.
He announced in Pittsburgh on Friday that he would double - from 25 percent to 50 percent - import taxes on steel, to help the domestic industry as a 'planned partnership' between Japan's Nippon and the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel comes together.
Later Friday he announced that he would be doubling the tariff on aluminum imports as well.
The administration is asking countries to submit their best proposals to combat Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs by this Wednesday, as the 90-day pause ends on July 8.
Only one trade deal has been fully inked thus far - the one with Great Britain.
'There's no way to convince him that he's losing,' the former adviser said. 'He's winning, no matter what, he's going to win.'
'I also think that because it comes from Wall Street itself, which is part of the elite ... that also pissed him off,' the source added. 'He's smarter than Wall Street, he's smarter than the Wall Street Journal, he's smarter than Bloomberg and he believes they're fundamentally wrong on this.'
Democrats believe the 'TACO' moniker is potent politics, with the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday branding a taco truck on Capitol Hill with a picture of Trump in a chicken suit.
The truck was located several blocks away from the Republican National Committee's headquarters in an effort to troll them.
'Donald Trump is like the bad boss we've all had - he comes up with dumb ideas, blames everybody else when they fail, and we all laugh behind his back,' DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.
'With his idiotic trade policy, he talks a big game, caves, and then leaves working families and small businesses to deal with the fallout,' Martin continued. 'Trump always chickens out - we're just bringing the tacos to match.'
The RNC dubbed the effort lame.
'LMFAO. This is the jankiest excuse for a taco truck I've ever seen,' the RNC's Communications Director Zach Parkinson told the Daily Mail via email. 'Are they going to be giving out free vasectomies again too?'
Parkinson was referencing a Planned Parenthood Great Rivers of St. Louis truck that made an appearance in August in Chicago alongside the Democratic National Convention.

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How Israel could go it alone without US bunker buster bombs
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How Israel could go it alone without US bunker buster bombs

The United States appears to have sent two B-2 stealth bombers to a military base in the Indian Ocean. The decision to send the warplanes, shortly after sending the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier to the region, could be a last minute negotiating tactic or a prelude to war. The bombers, which were probably making their way to Guam or the Diego Garcia military base, are equipped with the capability to use 'bunker buster' bombs which could offer the best chance of taking out Iran's Fordow nuclear facility. However, President Trump is still uncommitted for the time being to offensive action and is talking up diplomacy. If the president is unwilling to use his assets in the region to attack Iran, the question arises of how far the Israelis might be able to go on their own. Several targets, including the heavy-water reactor at Arak and the most important uranium enrichment plant, Natanz, have already been struck. The boss of the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that the centrifuges there were stopped so abruptly by airstrikes that they have been 'severely damaged if not destroyed altogether'. But other key sites are believed to remain intact, including the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre and the uranium enrichment plant deep underground at Fordow. The first of these (also a subterranean facility) is thought to have been the storage site for the 400-plus kilograms of uranium already enriched close to weapons grade. The second site is home to the most secure processing facilities available to the Islamic Republic. So, what are the other options? Expert opinion seems divided. Yoav Gallant, Israel's defence minister until last year, in an article in the Free Press co-authored with Sir Niall Ferguson, argued, 'only one air force has the power to finish off Fordow … only America can do this'. 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The idea of a nuclear weapon being used, something the White House would not rule out this week, seems like an extraordinary escalation but might be threatened at this stage as another attempt to intimidate Iran into making concessions. It's fascinating also that the Mossad veteran implied that a deep penetration unconventional weapon was a capability the US has, but not Israel. If President Trump's desire to avoid another Middle Eastern war means he sits this one out, it's possible the Israelis may have secretly produced a better penetrator weapon than its publicly acknowledged inventory suggests. There's also been some speculation — shades of blowing up the Death Star — that Fordow has an Achilles heel, a ventilation shaft that could provide a pathway for a bomb. But so far Israel has not attempted an assault on Fordow. David Albright, an American academic who's spent many years looking at Iranian nuclear sites, is one of those who's more upbeat about the chances of putting it out of action, saying 'Israel doesn't need the United States to come in with bunker busters and destroy it … Israel can do it on its own'. He argues that destroying generators, ventilation systems and so on at Fordow's other support plant could wreck the centrifuges inside in the same way that Natanz's were. It's noteworthy also that this week Israel bombed the factory where new enrichment machines are made. If all else fails, it's likely that the Israelis also have a plan to attack Fordow using ground forces. Their main airborne formation, the 98th Paratroopers Division, was withdrawn from Gaza earlier this month to be ready for action elsewhere. Israeli C-130 transport planes have also been seen over Syria, apparently on missions to or from Iran. 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While the Israelis are likely to have developed numerous plans, Iran may still hold some wild cards. 'All enriched materials have been transferred and are in secure locations,' Major General Mohsen Rezaie of the Revolutionary Guard Corps said earlier this week. He added: 'We will come out of this war with our hands full.' Many believe Iran has indeed dispersed its stockpile of highly enriched uranium from Isfahan to other sites too. A third uranium enrichment site at a secret location is believed to have been under preparation when the conflict started. What all the 'kinetic' options require — from GBU-57 bombs to ground forces — is an continuing onsite inspection regime to ensure that in the months or years to come Iran's nuclear project is not reconstituted. That might be necessary even in the 'regime change' scenario: note that international organisations are currently trying to secure the remnants of Syria's chemical arsenal. At talks with the UK, France, and Germany in Geneva on Friday, Iran showed both its willingness to engage on these issues but also its refusal to give up uranium enrichment. That's a longstanding position which is, so far, unchanged by the war. This refusal to bend may be sufficient for President Trump, mindful of the political divisions within his Maga movement, to say that a deal is impossible, despite his recent attempts to pressure Iran into one. His line last week — saying 'I may or may not' attack — may also simply have been stalling for time while final military deployments went ahead. Evidently Pentagon planners have wanted to head off various contingencies if, for example, Iran were to retaliate against their bases or diplomatic facilities in the region. But with the arrival of two stealth bombers, alongside two aircraft carriers and soon a number of F-22 stealth fighters and tanker planes, Trump will be able to deliver a final ultimatum to Iran. When that happens, the question of whether Israel can take out Fordow and other key facilities on its own may become academic.

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