Economist Cooks Up New Code Word For Trump Tariff Plans, Serves It With A Serious Warning
University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers offered a tongue-in-cheek take on Donald Trump’s revived tariff agenda on Thursday when he came up with a new acronym to sum up what he fears could be right around the corner.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” Wolfers sarcastically mocked Trump’s failure to deliver the trade deals he promised after imposing so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on imports from around the world.
“I just think you’re being too harsh on this bloke,” Wolfers told host Nicolle Wallace. “I was a 17-year-old boy once, and prom was coming up, and I told all my mates the phone was ringing off the hook.” But in reality, he said, “I was huddled alone next to the phone hoping it would eventually ring.”
“There might be some parallels” with Trump’s situation right now, Wolfers suggested.
Trump’s administration had promised “90 deals in 90 days,” Wolfers said. “Instead, we got two frameworks and an extension to 114 days.”
“People don’t seem so worried right now,” he continued, saying people are “betting on” Trump backing away from his tariffs policy, which has been mockingly described in recent weeks by the acronym TACO, for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
“But I worry this is the opposite. I worry this is a bloke who loves tariffs and got talked out of it last time,” said Wolfers, who warned that, just like his teenage self eventually asked someone to prom, Trump may now have “the courage of his convictions” to go through with his threats.
That, said Wolfers, could be summed up in a new acronym: TACQUITO — Trump’s Aggressive Commerce Quest (will) Unleash Intense Tariff Orders.
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