TACO: TRUMP ALWAYS CHICKENS OUT!

[admin]

TACO Trump Melts Down Over “Trump Always Chickens Out”
Dark Brandon
May 29, 2025
The Dark Brandon Podcast
What happens when Trump hears people are calling him “TACO”? (Trump Always Chickens Out).

[admin]

NEW HIT SINGLE - Taco Taco Taco (Trump Always Chickens Out)
Mr. Newberger's AI Funnies
May 28, 2025 #AIvideo #TacoTacoTaco #TrumpSatire

When the tariffs get tough… the chicken gets tweeting.
From Mexico to the EU to Canada, he talks tough — then backpedals faster than you can say “trade war.”

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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/No4tahmdFFg

[admin]

Explained: TACO Trump Meme Explodes Online What is it Is the President Chickening Out on Tariffs
The Indian Express
May 30, 2025 #trumpnews #trumptariffs #tacotrade

A spicy new meme has taken over the internet—and no, it’s not about Mexican food. TACO Trump stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” a phrase coined by a Financial Times columnist to criticize Donald Trump’s retreat on tariff policies. The meme went viral after a tense exchange between Trump and a reporter at a press conference. With tacos featuring chicken-headed Trump images now plastered across social media, the debate is hot, hilarious—and very political.

[admin]

T.A.C.O: Trump Always Chickens Out | That Trippi Show
Resolute Square Is Now Lincoln Square!
Premiered 3 hours ago Joe Trippi's That Trippi Show

It's TACO Time for Trump... and he hates it. Great. Why this one sticks and why it's a lesson for us moving ahead. What about Elon? Is he sticking around? Why we shouldn't dance on DOGE's grave yet. Why "Drain the Swamp" makes perfect sense, if you're Trump... and how do we talk about corruption in a way Americans can understand? And the path forward for Joe has never been clearer. Time to do the hard work.



Transcript

Hey everybody it's Joe Trippy and welcome back to That Trippy Show with my co-host Alex Sashlo. This week it's taco
time no wait seriously not food yeah damn it trump got a taste of his own
medicine this week and didn't like it plus ding-dong elon's gone yeah right
and we finally get to your questions i know it's been a while alex where should we get started so wait are is this a
cooking show now is my dream finally a reality oh gosh yeah well yeah he You do
make a mean pizza so yeah I guess we could do that so let's talk about the
taco thing this time it is not that Taco Bell in Trump Tower it is something
Trump's actually really pissed about he's really mad at tacos Joe yeah he's
well I think he's it's a phrase coined by Financial Times columnist Robert
Armstrong in which he started to he basically called out the taco trade that
with tariffs and everything if you're playing the market or any those kinds of things that you should always when
basically understand it the taco trade which is Trump always chickens out so
when he puts on tariffs and the market collapses you buy then knowing that he
always chickens out when he does chicken out the market soarses and you sell and
evidently yeah Trump's response is I chickenen out i've never heard that he
said then he said you know don't ever say that what you said that's a nasty
question to me that's the nastiest question this is he lost it he
completely lost it that he was being called out for all his back and forth on
tariffs and other things where he always you know in the end just loses it anyway
I thought it was pretty funny but that's exactly what we need to do to Trump he's got to get a taste of his own message
and using you know catchy terms to call him out like the taco trade or you know
or putting that you remember all his nickname so now he's got doing this to
the guy that created little Marco and Lion like this is hitting him in a way
he can understand which I really love yeah well we can't let this be a flash
in the pan i mean we've again the the thing I think we do need to find is I
think the taco trade is great and of course it hits him where it hurts because he's got to be the strong man
and he hates the idea that that there's any anything referring to a chicken in a
phrase that that gets to him but I still think we need to find the corrupt you
know whether it's corrupt don the corrupt i mean but it there's got to be because that's the thing I still think
among all the his the things that he's doing the
most dangerous is the kind of the Putinization of on US soil of combining
the power of government with self-enrichment and it's clear I mean it's just becoming clear every day
that's what really is the d the driving ideology of Trump and Trumpism and I
think we need to it would be good to find the taco that that that makes
people out there more people understand what what's what he's doing that is I
think clearly the way to get him i mean the way if we it's easy to understand there
are a lot of examples every day piling up and if we could we've got to really
bang on corruption and I'm not sure Taco does that but I still like Taco well
it's this it's the classic bully thing right and like his response is basically I know you are but what I'm It's like I
don't chicken out i'm the strongest one really i'm the strongest one i mean honestly if I were like an Iranian war
like some security officer in Iran or some warlord in Mali or something I'd be
very worried that he's going to launch like a strike on them just to prove that he doesn't out no no that's what there
was a great I saw a post on somewhere and I can't I wish I because I'd attribute it to the person who did it
but it was great you know he was like when when Trump went out and said you know that I don't like what Putin's
doing he's something's gone wrong he's crazy he's changed he must stop now
somebody posted Putin needs to watch out because Trump might all caps him you
know that's the big threat you know it's really I think people are starting to
get the ridicule of him and what I'm saying is I think we we need to find
ways to do that around the corrupt around the corruption because I think that's the one that will get most voters
to to throw him out i think I think it might have been Ron Philpowski over at
our firm it was great yeah you extremely funny yeah yeah thank you all right well
the other one I wanted to make sure we got to today Joe and basically as we're recording this news is starting to come
out elon Musk has announced he's stepping back he's done joe is he sick
of it is he trying to triage Tesla should we believe he's gone from this regime i think I heard what you said in
the intro i think I know where you're going yeah don't get too carried away gang you know he was limited to 130 days
as a quote special government employee unquote and you know and Doge is going
to stick around it's all like he was I think it was at the UAE right where
Altman was trying to get the AI you know build a big center in in in in I think
it was the UAE and it turns out that Musk went out there told him that they
should can't do that deal because the president wouldn't do that unless Elon Musk's AI was involved and so no he's
clearly still now I don't know whether he derailed the Altman project or not but my point is no he's got no say he's
not really doing anything of course not he's gone and yeah he's gonna go
supposedly focus on his own businesses okay well he's got an AI company he's
very focused on it and he and he's trying to shut down everybody else because of his affiliation with Donald
Trump and as we know you can't count on whether Donald Trump is cashing in on
any of that any of that stuff with him so now you look under the hood he's
clearly pissed off that his $290 million plus didn't get him everything he wanted
which by the way that's just the money we know about so yeah you know his quotes on the spending bill that he's
disappointed to see the massive spending bill frankly which increases the budget deficit not just decreases it and
undermines the work that the Doge team is doing i think a bill can be a be big
or it can be beautiful but I don't know if it can be both," unquote so you know
I'm not saying that there aren't you know he gets to quiet you know to
basically say things like that and say looked at that CBS news article we
linked last week showing just how much money they were spending more yeah they're spending 200 billion more than
he quote cut so you know in the first 100 days or something like that i mean it's just you know you know that's what
I'm saying none of this is true that all the havoc that that Elon and Doge caused
by firing and then having to hire you know all the craziness even if it did
anywhere near what they said it doesn't matter the fact of the matter is that
the government reports spending and every literally every day and we've
already spent two like literally at the 100 day mark $200 billion more than in
the previous same period so no the spending's going up they're going to
pass the you know the they're going to do the tax cuts and everything else which is going to
make again more spending less and the only cuts they're making are going to be
again same thing things people need no Elon isn't you know he his influence is
going to be there the whole time and now the problem is at least you know Doge
you could you know you could see what they were doing in departments and stuff at least you know as because you know
they would uh put out reports and all that he's not going to report anything anymore i mean yeah he I'm not here so I
don't have to I don't have to tell you that I called the president to tell him to kill the the AI deal in the UAE you
know and again that that's what gets back to the corruption in this government that it really is the
Putinization of our government in the same spirit that Putin has created in in
Russia combining using the power of the his political power for and combining it
fusing it with personal enrichment of those of himself Putin and those
oligarchs and others closest to him that's literally the mirror now that
you're seeing here with Trump that's the government that's the system he's
creating and so it's not really the traditional autocratic kind of thing
where you really you know autocrats tend to build their own
bureaucracies to to basically you know f make everything function in their
autocratic style you know maybe he's doing that at ICE he's definitely trying
to do that with the military i think it'll be hopefully it'll be harder there but but what's but they don't really
focus on that stuff very much except in a few places probably justice they're very important places don't get
me wrong but what they're really focused on is creating a
fem where all the everything that you're draining from the people and from those
from the governments out there that you're threatening everything flows to you everything is a And what's different
about it too and I know we're on Elon Musk but I think it hits me that what's
different about it is that most people think corruption in government is
somebody coming to an official with a bribe right hey I really need this
building permit and here's you know $10,000 because it's a major development
and I could really use your help okay that's how it usually goes down no with
Trump and with Putin I mean the same style is you demand the bribe i mean you
there's no you don't wait for someone to you know for Canada to come to you you
go to Canada and you say "Hey $61
billion of Golden Dome protection i want and I'll exchange that
for you if you give me make Canada the 51st state." Now ain't going to happen
you go to the perfect call with Sinski right give me stuff on Biden and I'll
get this done for you it's the he's the one demanding bribes every single day
and frankly law firms have given them have
said "Okay yeah here you want a hundred million to not go after us here's $100 million in free billings." Same thing i
mean everywhere everybody he demands the bribe and everybody is caving and now
you have Elon Musk out there not connected not a 130day you know special
employee who is making similar demands in using the president's name whether
the president's in on it or not i find it hard to believe he wouldn't be but you know maybe Elon is just you know
bluffing people but he's using the same MO well let's stay let's stay on the corruption thing i got two listener
questions I'm going to combine and then I'm going to read you some stuff from this week's Navigator which I find fascinating all right this is from
Barnes in South Carolina it's one of my favorite questions we've gotten in a long time wasn't Trump supposed to drain
the swamp i think you just illustrated why and how he ever had no desire whatsoever to do that but the second one
was from Sora in Chicago is the way to win making this about Trump or not i'm worried that the default response will
be well they just hate Trump so combining those two Joe I want your take and then I got some numbers for you well
the first thing is drain the swamp makes perfect sense if you
understand that the swamp is we the people and that Trump the people who are
enriching themselves around him are everything that they're draining
everything they're draining is coming from us and ending in their pockets in one way and by the way I mean the same
thing with our power we you know if you're worried about the United about Trump attacking you well it's the US
it's us you know it's in our name and so what I'm saying is when he when he
causes our allies to distrust America that's draining us of the trust those
countries had in us if it's lining his pockets if it's taking that jumbo fraud
plane it's all of this is about him draining the you know America's strength
of the American people's wallets making us you know if there got to be cuts so
he can give his rich friends tax continue the tax breaks he'll take it
from us it'll be you know children seniors all these things are we're the
swamp we're the swamp and he is draining it baby and it's our pockets that he's draining so that's what I think is part
of this on the question of you know is it making this about Trump it look it
the real interesting thing is and I think maybe this is where you're going to go to on the is it a bad idea to make
it all about him the a lot of the polling says that the more you one
recognize the problem that exists you know whatever it that we're talking
about whether it's healthcare yes the health care needs to be acknowledged that it's not perfect right that it
needs to be improved but you know we're democracy itself right it's not to
defend democracy gets to acknowledge that democracy isn't working for a lot of people and we need to make it better
and then go into how the to to broaden
it beyond Trump Trump make sure that we're and maybe I think Alex you're
going to get to some examples of that in the numbers but I think it's really clear that you have to invoke Trump but
there's a better way to do it than just making it all about him well so this gets to kind of the minefield we've been
talking about on and off for the last couple months one of the things that everyone needs to take away is we cannot
get into this rhythm of defending the status quo it is not just Trump wants to
break the status quo we're for the status quo no Trump wants to break it we want to fix it right i mean just in very
shorthand and so this is what's wild so first of all the griff that keeps on
giving totally true but so basically this new navigator research show that's
the research that that we were looking at this morning exactly that's what I was getting americans see corruption in
both sides bottom line everybody thinks both parties are corrupt most people do they what they did which I think is
fascinating and this is exactly avoiding the tradition what I'm calling the traditional Democratic trap two messages
from Democrats message one the scale of corruption under Trump massively
outweighs that of any past presidency Democrat or Republican and we need to do something about it okay that's message
one message two and I realized as a visual medium I'm holding my fingers up on video so maybe on video someday we'll
try to do this message two Washington has a major corruption party problem in
both parties and we need to enact significant reforms and overhaul the system to hold Trump as well as other
Republicans and Democrats accountable for corruption now they tested that against the classic Republican response
which Sora our questioner from Chicago asked which was Trump isn't any more corrupt than any other president anyone
who says otherwise just wants to hurt Trump okay so the unprecedented one the one where he's just super corrupt it
does beat the Republican message in their testing it's 50 to 37 plus 13 it's
fine but saying that admitting that Washington has a major corruption problem in both parties the major reform
across all things plus 41 6423 it crushes it so it's like while it all
feels good to talk about Trump it doesn't break through and then if you look at if you look at the like all the
categories which again we're going to get to a Nate silver question in a minute independence the major reform
everybody's got to you know work together hold them account everybody accountable for corruption fix the
system it crushes with independents non- mega Republicans young men and like the
kind of infrequent news consumers the ones that like only barely know about the pope and have heard of tariffs but
have not heard about medicate it's stuff like that really cuts through yeah you know the but I think it's actually
probably a combined in other words they you know the interesting thing about that would have been there's a problem
with corruption both sides in Washington needs to be fixed because Donald Trump
is taking it to a new level list two or three of the things that
specifically take it to Trump and then go back to you that in other words what I'm saying is if you don't lead with
Trump is the worst in all time and the most corrupt guy ever enter it the way
they did on the in the second version and begin it that way and then bring in
mid midway in bring in that Trump is that this problem that needs to be fixed
right both both sid sides are responsible for it it needs to be reformed has been made even worse now
because Donald Trump has become has taken corruption to a whole new level
accepting plain you know and go into it I think could be pretty powerful i mean
they didn't test it that way but that's how I when I look at it at those questions that's my gut about how we
should use it i still think corruption is the even if you look at just the
unprecedented first version you know 503 what was it it was
50 to 37 on the Trump is more corrupt and 64 yeah and that's against the
Republican counter and so hey that says to you corruption's it
baby i mean that's what I'm saying even if you look at that at version of how to go after him it's
5037 and that's with the Republicans you know with them getting their shot at oh
anybody who says he's the most corrupt is just you know when both parties are doing it you know it's just out to get
Trump okay that's going to be their response the American people 50 37 say
no he is the most corrupt guy ever that's not a bad place to keep pushing i
do think as we pointed out there's a better way to do it i'm just saying I think it might be combining them in a
smart messaging in smart messaging that combines those two arguments and could
maybe it won't get to that to the f full strength one of the things that re that worries me about the second version of
it is that yeah a lot of people might hear that and go yeah it makes sense yeah I'm for that but I'm not sure it
strikes the same intensity i'd like to go back and look at those numbers i just think it's about combining the two
arguments that Yeah but the more important thing the lesson of that poll the navigator poll is that the first
step whether it's in defending democracy whether it's making the charge of corruption whether it's when he goes
after Medicaid and the health care system is to acknowledge that Medicaid
and the health care system aren't perfect they're they need you know both
parties have avoided doing what needs to be done whatever but Trump has is taking
us in the wrong direction we need reform you know I mean in other words basically enter into it we're defending democracy
we're not defending the status quo alex pointed that out don't defend the status quo acknowledge that the status quo is
worthy of change and re and needed reform but Trump's corruption Trump's
you know the destroying the entire department of education is you know
needs to be challenged and fought and stopped and again I think part of the
real thing moving forward is Democrats and pro-democracy voices need
to say ba basically say "Look this guy's corrupt he's destroying everything we're
going to have to rebuild but when we do we're not going to we there's an opportunity not to rebuild things
exactly the way they were but to rebuild them reform them reorientate them to in
a better way that is that better serves the American people destroying it destruction isn't doing that and
destroying while corruption is lining his pockets is and may be the major reason he's in office is something that
that we need to work together to throw out and change so there's a couple awesome
questions we've gotten there was a really good post from Nate Silver this week that I really want to get to but it
that's going to be a whole show in of itself talking about turnout and what Democrats can do joe I'm going to leave
you with one more and then we got a wrap for the day this I think you'll have a fun with this this is from G in Texas i
read an article that basically said the first casualty of AI will be our social
networks bots posting AI content then bots just liking that content elbowing
out humans i kind of find myself being okay with that joe I would love for you
to react to that and then we can let everybody enjoy their weekend yeah well
I mean yeah if you enjoy being divided and angry at things it'll be it'll work
out just great they'll just be bots pretending to be one group attacking
bots who are pretending to be the other group and going at it yeah no humans involved basically by the way this is
essentially what's going on right now well except except that a lot of human beings are fighting with bots that are
that have picked them out on purpose because hey this will be a good fight and and I can divide and push them
further away so no I don't find myself okay with that at all i think what we
need to do is create and it would be very you know you can get rid of the
bots but the reason none of the social networks want to get rid of the bots is because if you have four million bots on
your network that's 4 million more accounts that you can sell to your
advertisers not only that those four million bots they create a lot of screaming and yelling and people
engaging and so that's good too because the more engagement the more advertising
and so yeah no the bots are everybody's friends but ours there you know if
you're into corporate greed that's why we have all the bots on most of these networks and why no one's going to get
rid of them we need but we can create social networks that cut the bots out
but that's the interesting thing so instead the reaction should be hey bots
posting AI content and then bots liking them elbowing out humans and I find
myself being okay with that why don't we go to human beings providing content and
human beings liking or disliking them and let's elbow out the bots now
I find myself really okay with that and that's what that's where we need to head
because if we don't head in that direction these networks and the doom scrolling and the
bots and algorithms pushing us all into hating each other and hating on each other will
continue and democracy cannot function in fact they all know that's why
Russians and bots and other folks are all over these networks elbowing out
sane people i think that is a very good place for us to end today joe I don't
know that wasn't very uplifting i usually try to end on something that you know get people something to look
forward look I think that we I become more and more convinced that if we're
going to save our democracy people have to become a lot more engaged it's hard
work it's easy to post on X it's hard work to find an you know says us to
start a place where people go and it's yes it's smaller but we're building a
network it's a pro-democracy network i think it's the same thing with these with the handsoff rallies yes there it's
three million people that have have been showing up it's the hard work of finding another friend or a co-orker or family
member to go with you so we can get it to 6 million but we've got to be active on social building our own social
networks building a movement that's pro-democracy to take the corruption and
the and the just ugly violence of Donald
Trump and what he's what he's doing and force over
time these MAGA congressmen and senators they're worried about they're far more
worried about losing a primary to a mega base than they are losing to us in a
general election and we have to start showing up and reacting in numbers that
change that equation that make them fear us in the general of
2026 more than they fear their MAGA base
they probably won't i mean they'll probably go into that election hopefully in fear of both and
if they're in fear of MAGA then unfortunately they will continue to to
be with Trump and be with MAGA and keep looking the other way and seeing no evil hearing no evil speaking no evil unless
it's to repeat Trump's lies but then that fear that they had the whole time
as they watched us get bigger and watched us grow from three million to
six million to 12 million and see us vocal in the streets nonviolent protests
calling their offices letting them getting louder and louder uh then what
happens in that general will be sweeping every single one of them out
that has to be not 18 every We need to go after every one
of those people who sits there in that election and is still with Donald Trump against the American
people for his corruption against us and we need to make a stand on that day in
November of 2026 and crush every single one of them that's hard work this is the
beginning of the end 2026 has to be the end thanks everybody for listening to
that Trippy Show remember says US is live it's a civil social network for
real human beings part of the hard work is yes oh my god I'll have to go
actually check out another app yes but we need to build one that's for us so
join us at sez us it's in your Android your Google
and Apple app stores and I think we're going to have some pretty good
happenings in the next week or two so I hope you'll join this podcast is always
free and is part of Lincoln Square so check out the latest at lincolnquar.com please subscribe to That
Trippy Show leave a review on Apple or wherever you listen you can always send us questions at
alex [email protected] we got to a bunch today we'll get to a bunch more next time great thanks everybody

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Trump TACO Memes Anger the US President | Vantage with Palki Sharma | N18G
Firstpost
May 30, 2025 #usa #trade #wallstreet
Trump TACO Memes Anger the US President | Vantage with Palki Sharma | N18G

Ever since a US columnist floated the idea of TACO - Trump Always Chickens Out - it has triggered a deluge of jokes and memes targeting the US president. Trump's response to the idea has only made things worse. Palki Sharma brings you the Joke of the Day.

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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9J51ettVOwg

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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2s7-nU2Vxww

[admin]

TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out
by Rick Wilson
The Lincoln Project
Premiered May 30, 2025 The Lincoln Project Podcast

This week, Rick's Elephant in the Room unpacks TACO Trump. (And, kudos to the Wall Street Bros who coined the "perfect" term -- "Trump Always Chickens Out.") As the anthropologist on Donald Trump, Rick (who has studied this man for over ten years -- thank you for your service!) sheds light on how TACO applies to all aspects of Trump. This flacid, feeble, fatuous fool is not the strong man he thinks he portrays. Completely inept, played by dictators, confused by intelligent people, and obsessively corrupt, Trump has always been a weak, small, stupid man in politics, in business, and in his personal life. Regardless of the news cycle, there's one thing we can always count on -- Trump Always Chickens Out, no matter the stakes.



Transcript

[Narrator] Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. There is not a liberal America, and a conservative America. There is the United States of America.

Good night and good luck

[Rick Wilson] Hey gang. There's an elephant in the room today, that is also a delicious treat. It's the taco: Trump always chickens out.

So by now you've heard the acronym that Wall Street has applied to Donald Trump: Taco, Trump always chickens out. These Wall Street guys, in spite of their many moral failings, begin to spot patterns in financial maneuvers. They begin to spot patterns in economic moments. They begin to spot patterns that allow them to make money. Pattern recognition is a really good thing in the money-making world; in politics; and in survival, in life. Humans are built to be pattern recognizing machines. One of the patterns that has now become rather evident with Donald Trump is taco: Trump always chickens out. Every time he set a new trade barrier, had a new hissy fit about how high the tariffs will be, he's chickened out; backs up; he runs away. It's not negotiating. It's not some secret sauce that Donald Trump has about being this masterful manipulator of human emotion. Trump chickens out every time because he doesn't know what he's doing. He has no clue what he's doing. These people who've been able to bamboozle Donald Trump, I mean it's sad. It's like elder abuse. Because he goes over for his free jet trip to Qatar and says "Oh the Saudis, the UAE, Qatar, they gave me $5.1 trillion in two hours." I have some bad news for you, Donald. Math is hard. It's harder when you're stupid. Trump did not get $5.1 trillion. He has not transformed America's economy with this brilliant tariff scheme of his. In fact, Trump always chickens out.

Think about this for a second. Think about how they sold the tariffs in the beginning. The tariffs will bring in so much money; we won't even have to pay taxes anymore; we can get rid of the IRS; we'll have an external revenue service, not an internal revenue service; we'll all be so rich, you'll have so much money you won't know what to do with it. But Trump always chickens out. That idea, that conceit, that Trump is a great negotiator, is all, you know, what we call the Apprentice effects. Because people watched The Apprentice back in the day, and they thought, "Oh, he's a negotiator; he's a brilliant dealmaker; he's a CEO; he's a corporate executive. He was a reality TV star playing a role that was written for him by writers, not Trump writers; and he portrayed that on television. Donald Trump is not a great negotiator. He is not a great dealmaker. He has historically never been a good dealmaker. And he always chickens out.

Remember, you were promised -- I'm talking to you MAGAs for a second here -- you were promised that these tariffs were going to lead to 200 deals, which I don't know how that works, because there's about 190 some countries, of which the deal component would matter in about 20. The deal he made with the UK had no net change. You went from X, Trump declared Y, and we landed back at X. That's not a win. With China, Xi won the battle. Xi has control of the board. I don't mean that because I like China, I say that because Donald Trump always chickens out. He always caves. At the end of the day, the bluster, and the chest beating is central to Trump's brand. He's a giant sack of ego, narcissism and self-regard, and all those things that make him so reprehensible, and make him so difficult to respect as a human being. Because even if you thought he was right about tariffs, even if you were one of the handful of people in this country who actually believe that tariffs are a good thing, and I mean if your name's not Ron Varo, or Peter Navarro, you're probably, you know, sensibly opposed to tariffs, as one is. But even if you wanted him to do this, even if you had bought into this idea that Trump would have this power to negotiate tariffs that would advantage the US to bring back manufacturing, and do all these things, what do you know about this guy so far? Trump always chickens out.

I hope you will pardon me, but Donald Trump is a chicken. Donald Trump is a coward. He has always been such. Donald Trump has no real belief in anything, except the usual four things I've told you about a thousand times. He likes money; he likes attention; he likes -- or liked -- sex (I don't know if that's the same thing anymore, Hello, Natalie [Harp]), and he likes to humiliate people. He's getting none of that right now -- I don't know about the sex part. That's a separate story for another day. But he's backing down; he's losing over and over and over and over again in these trade negotiations; and yesterday -- I'm recording this late Thursday for a Friday release -- yesterday, on Wednesday of this week, Donald Trump got his teeth kicked in by a federal judge who he appointed. Congress has abrogated its responsibilities which, under Article One, Congress is responsible for. All that matters is tariffs. Literally, it says it in the Constitution. Trump using this emergency declaration that Congress sort of like let him do it, it has been illegal. All this house of cards he's built, this gigantic edifice of bullshit that he's built to convince MAGA voters that their lives are about to become so great, because he's raising their tariffs and basically cutting their disposable income in half, in some cases, because the price of everything is going to go up, he's convinced them that somehow that is a great outcome? Even if you thought that, Trump always chickens out. You know it's true.

Now that you think about it, now that you look at this as part of a pattern, the bluster and the bullshit of Trump is always, "It's the biggest; it's the best; it's the largest; it's the most extravagant; it's the most luxurious; it's the most glamorous; it's the best; it's the biggest." It's all this all the time. None of it holds up to scrutiny. He never, ever, ever, ever, manages to convince people more than one time, those who are not locked in the Fox hypnosis bubble, who are not locked in the MAGA media bubble.

But here's the thing about Trump. He fails, and calls it a success. He collapses and says he's rising. His numbers go down, and he says his numbers go up. He says that these tariffs are good for the economy, when they're terrible for the economy. All that bluffing, all that bluster, all that, you know, riverboat gambler bullshit he pulls off with a lot of people, including a lot of people in his own party, and his own allies in Congress, the pattern historically is that it falls apart. He's a strong man only in his mind. He's a tough guy only in the imaginary fights he has in his head. He's dangerous. He's reckless. He's stupid. And by the way, part of why people are so surprised that this is happening right now on two big fronts: one on the tariffs, and the second one on Russia, is a simple thing to understand. Donald Trump's not that educated. He's not that smart. He has a feral cunning about manipulating people. I've said that a hundred times. But he's not that bright. He is not a genius, stable or otherwise. Donald Trump is not a guy with a a real ability to go on the world stage and go toe-to-toe with smart people. And smart people on Wall Street, and in Capitols around the world, especially in the Capitols that are run by the folks who hate America, and are our enemies, they figured out that Trump always chickens out.

Now when a reporter asked him on Wednesday about the Taco Nom de Douche, Trump's face told me everything. Look folks, I'm not going to engage in any false modesty here, but I'm the anthropologist of Donald Trump. I hate it; I've studied this guy now for over a decade; I've written two books, with a third on the way, about Donald Trump; I don't like writing about Donald Trump; but here we are. It's my job. And I've learned to read Trump's expressions, and his mannerisms, and his tonality, when he's confronted with something he had heard about before. He had heard about taco before. Again, don't be fooled that he was surprised by that. Someone had already whispered in his ear about taco before. But he couldn't control himself. He couldn't stop himself. You can see that expression he gets when the acid is boiling in his stomach. When he's so angry you could see that seething rage.

"That's a dumb question. That's an unfair question." You've seen that procedure before. But taco hits hard. Taco hits hard because it's simple. It's cultural. It's diminishing. It's a food eaten by people who Trump believes are rapists, and murderers, and monsters, and by, you know, ordinary Americans. But taco stings for Trump because it shows what he is. He is a chicken. He is a coward. He's a small man pretending to be the big man. Trump always chickens out. I didn't invent it, but it may well rival "everything Trump touches dies." You can really look at it and apply it across so many spectra of what he does, and who he is; and how he acts; and what the consequences of his behavior are for the American people. Remember, Trump is not a smart man. He's not a brave man. He has no principles other than, again, the four things he loves. And it constantly fascinates me that there are millions of Americans who believe there's something coherent, something explicable, something deliberate underneath all the stochastic noise, all the chaos, all the mental pachinko machine in his head banging back and forth all day. There's nothing there, except fear. Where does all that fear come from? He's not smart, but he's smart enough to recognize that the world is a more sophisticated and frightening place than he is comfortable with. He's not smart, but he does get that people, his counterparties, are better at this than he is. If the qualitative assessment of how these leaders around the world behave, folks like Mark Carney have a level of erudition that Donald Trump can't even begin to comprehend. Folks like Xi understand power better than Donald Trump can ever comprehend. Folks like Putin understand how to manipulate better than anyone. And Donald Trump is a master manipulator, but Vladimir Putin is in an entirely separate galactic league.

When you see Donald Trump -- he's done it four times now; keep track of, watch this -- Putin rolled him like a cheap rug. Trump tried to BS his way through it with America, saying, "Oh I'll settle the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Putin respects me. He'll do what I want." Blah blah blah. Even when they offered up partitions of Ukraine that Steve Witkoff, and Marco Rubio, and JD Vance, and all these guys have been advocating for, partitions of Ukraine where you give Russia any territory it says is contested, Putin didn't take the deal. Why didn't he take the deal? Think about it, folks. Why didn't he take the deal? Because Donald Trump always chickens out. Donald Trump always chickens out. And Vladimir Putin knows it. Vladimir Putin understands Trump better than Trump understands Trump. So in an intelligence world, there's an acronym that intelligence officers use when they're recruiting a spy. It's mice. M I C E: Money; ideology; compromise; and ego. Which of those do you think Trump is not vulnerable on? The answer is none. Don Jr, back in 2008, talked about how much money they made from Russia. Eric the Gums, in 2014, said, "Oh, we don't need money from Western banks. We borrow from Russia. We have Russian money coming in. Trump obsessively wanted to build a tower in Moscow. From 1996 until 2016 he was trying to build a tower, a hotel tower in Moscow, desperately. Folks, you've forgotten the names like Felix Sater probably and [inaudible], and all these other folks that were around the Trump organization, the Trump extended universe, all these folks in 2016 and beyond with very direct ties back to Russia, nothing triggers Trump more than Russia, Russia, Russia, as he calls it, because it wasn't a hoax. Because Russia made a decision to aid his campaign. They used the power of their influence operations to help drive his campaign. All that was worth money, by the way.

Ideology? Is Trump a communist? Certainly not. But neither is Russia. And neither is Putin. Trump is an autocrat. The similarity of their ideological predicates stems to a man named Aleksandr Dugin, who we've talked a little bit about before on this show. We probably should do something more about him. See Dkt. 105 at 3, 8, 17–18 & n.8.

Eurasianism (Russian: евразийство, yevraziystvo) is a political movement in Russia, formerly within the primarily Russian émigré community, that posits that Russian civilisation does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the geopolitical concept of Eurasia. Originally developing in the 1920s, the movement was supportive of the Bolshevik Revolution but not its stated goals of enacting communism, seeing the Soviet Union as a stepping stone on the path to creating a new national identity that would reflect the unique character of Russia's geopolitical position....

Eurasianism is a political movement that has its origins in the Russian émigré community in the 1920s. The movement posited that Russian civilization does not belong in the "European" category (somewhat borrowing from Slavophile ideas of Konstantin Leontyev), and that the October Revolution of the Bolsheviks was a necessary reaction to the rapid modernization of Russian society. The Eurasianists believed that the Soviet regime was capable of evolving into a new national, non-European Orthodox Christian government, shedding the initial mask of proletarian internationalism and militant atheism (to which the Eurasianists were strongly opposed).

The Eurasianists criticized the anti-Bolshevik activities of organizations such as ROVS, believing that the émigré community's energies would be better focused on preparing for this hoped for process of evolution. In turn, their opponents among the emigres argued that the Eurasianists were calling for a compromise with and even support of the Soviet regime, while justifying its ruthless policies (such as the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church) as mere "transitory problems" that were inevitable results of the revolutionary process.

The key leaders of the Eurasianists were Prince Nikolai Trubetzkoy, P.N. Savitsky, P.P. Suvchinskiy, D. S. Mirsky, K. Čcheidze, P. Arapov, and S. Efron. Philosopher Georges Florovsky was initially a supporter, but backed out of the organization claiming it "raises the right questions", but "poses the wrong answers". A significant influence of the doctrine of the Eurasianists can be found in Nikolai Berdyaev's essay "The Sources and Meaning of Russian Communism"....

--The Origin of Russian Communism, by Nicolas Berdyaev, translated from the Russian by R.M. French

Several members of the Eurasianists were affected by the Soviet provocational TREST operation, which had set up a fake meeting of Eurasianists in Russia that was attended by the Eurasianist leader P.N. Savitsky in 1926 (an earlier series of trips were also made two years earlier by Eurasianist member P. Arapov). The uncovering of the TREST as a Soviet provocation caused a serious morale blow to the Eurasianists and discredited their public image. By 1929, the Eurasianists had ceased publishing their periodical and had faded quickly from the Russian émigré community....

The ideology of the movement was partially incorporated into a new movement of the same name after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, when the Eurasia Party was founded by Aleksandr Dugin....

Before war broke out between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Aleksandr Dugin visited South Ossetia and predicted, "Our troops will occupy the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the entire country, and perhaps even Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, which is historically part of Russia, anyway."

-- Eurasianism, by Wikipedia

He's a very dark figure. He's got a powerful influence over folks like JD Vance, and Peter Thiel, and a lot of the the Silicon Valley types, and the alt-right types.

Compromise. I've never believed in the pee tape. Check the record. If it was real, it would have come out. But the compromises that Trump has made already about Russia, they don't need him to. He's already a fellow traveler.

Ego. Obviously that category is something that unless you've been living in the bottom of a mineshaft for the last 10 years, you would recognize that a skilled KGB operator like Vladimir Putin could manipulate Trump's ego. But for all that, remember, Putin only had to take one lesson away from his prior dealings with Trump way back in 2017. Trump always chickens out. The people around Trump, the Howard Lutniks, the Ron Varas, I mean, oh, excuse me, Peter Navarros, the Scott Bessants, who've been on the front of this trade debacle, they know it's not going to work.

Last night I had a senior Trump source tell me they were relieved -- the word was "relieved" -- that the court had made this decision. And this person said, "He'll yell about it today, but it's really going to save us." Not that Trump has got a high fidelity to following court orders right now, but Trump always chickens out. So all these people on the front line know that Trump always chickens out. Congress, who if it is possible to imagine a bigger chicken operation than Mike Johnson's Republican Congress, they have the statutory and constitutional power to set these tariffs. Why have they done nothing? Why? I'll tell you why. Because they all know that tariffs are a bad idea. They're idiocy. They also know that Trump always chickens out. They knew this would fall apart. They knew it would collapse. They knew that Trump wasn't strong enough to pull it off. He never is, gang. Trump is never strong enough to pull these things off.  

Now the people around him who do terrible things every day, and there are many people around him who do many terrible things every day: Kristi Noem, and Tom Homan, and Steven Miller, and Marco Rubio, and Pam Bondi, and Dan Bongino, and Kash Patel -- I could go through the little laundry list of these bad actors. The malfeasance is up to here in this organization, okay? But when Trump is toe-to-toe with the tough issues, tough foreign leaders, when Trump has to go toe-to-toe, go in the room across the table, face to face, Mano a Mano, we've learned something: that Trump always chickens out. President Taco, Donnie Taco, Taco Donnie.

You know, Trump's magic of branding people with a stupid nickname? Now we have found the jack boot firmly on the other foot.

Guys, "taco." Use it. Love it. Because he hates it so much. And that, my friends, is this week's elephant in the room.  

Hey, folks. A little extra nugget here for you. As Elon Musk departs the scene, his car company has collapsed. It looks like if you kill Tesla, you might save America. Who said that before? He's going to ban me again. His rocket company is in peril now. They rushed and did a bunch of stunt stuff on this launch. Apparently, the angle that they brought the ship back in was meant to overstress it, so it blew up. Good job! But the story of today, as I'm recording this, that I've been getting notes on from people, is that Steven Miller's wife is going to work for Elon Musk. Guys, if you're on Poly Market, or one of those betting sites, put your money down that, I don't know, a year from now, Kate Miller will be having a child with Elon Musk, because he can't help himself? [EVERYONE is laughing] Oh, good times.

Hey everybody. Thanks so much for listening. As always, I am delighted as always to be your host, to pull the curtain back a little bit every Friday here with the elephant in the room. You can also catch me on the Lincoln Project podcast, the Enemies List podcast, both on Lincoln Square. You can catch my writing on my Substack. I occasionally post on Lincoln Square as well. Every Monday you can catch me with Molly Jong-Fast on Fast Politics. Also buy Molly's new book, "How to Lose Your Mother." It is heartbreaking, and American, and riveting. And she put so much into it. I really want to say that it is a rending emotional work, especially for those of us with older parents.  

Not to end this on a down note, but folks, we are at a moment where the stresses inside the Trump administration are growing. The craziness is getting bigger. And we're here to help you analyze it, and understand it, and push through it, and to learn how to fight back, and to give you the tools to go make those arguments about why democracy is better than autocracy, about why free markets are better than tariffs, about why strong international relationships are better for America than isolationism, and weakness, and capitulation to Russia.

Lincoln Square was built and designed to be a new hub, that goes past where the mainstream media is willing to go; that talks the truth; that is direct, and honest, and unashamed of being outwardly, aggressively, pro-democracy, and pro the American republic. None of this happens without you folks. Hope you'll subscribe, and we will see you again on the next issue of the elephant in the room. Thanks. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good night and good luck.