Donald Trump seems to have lived up to his TACO acronym yet again after the US and China extended their trade truce.
Trump’s tariff trade policy caused global financial chaos earlier this year, and whilst the US has agreed some trade deals since then – although nowhere near the 90 he had promised – the nation is still in a stalemate with China.
Washington had threatened tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods in May, with China in turn threatening 125% on the US.
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This was averted when the two nations agreed a 90 day pause, which was due to end at 12:01am on Tuesday morning.
But on Monday, Trump announced he had agreed yet another 90 day extension on the tariffs, with China having seemingly called the president’s bluff.
The move seems to be the latest example of Trump threatening extreme tariffs only to back down at the final minute.
This pattern has reportedly earned him the nickname TACO among Wall Street traders, which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out.
On social media, many aimed TACO jibes at the president, with one account suggesting China had “played Trump like a fiddle.”
They wrote: “With Wall Street sliding and brutal inflation reports looming, he bet everything on a 90-day pause before reimposing steep tariffs – hoping Beijing would blink.
“They didn’t. The midnight deadline came and went. Trump folded, quietly signing an executive order to extend the pause for another 90 days. The self-proclaimed “deal-maker” just got owned in broad daylight.
“Happy Taco Monday.”
Had the US and China not agreed an extension this week, America could have hiked taxes on Chinese imports from the already-in-place 30%, whilst Beijing could have responded with retaliatory levies on US exports.