TACO Rings True as Trump Fails Trade Deals

Chronic liar Donald Trump promised “90 deals in 90 days’’ after releasing a tariff plan that will destroy the American economy. Trump administration officials declared, with zero evidence, that other countries were desperate to make concessions to avoid the massive import taxes – tariffs -- that Trump was threatening to plaster on their products starting July 9. Tariffs that Americans will pay for and suffer from.

But the 90 days have come and gone. And so far only two trade deals – one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam - have materialized. Trump has also announced some sort of deal with China, releasing no real details.

Trump has now extended the deadline for negotiations to Aug. 1 (OBVIOUSLY FOR THEIR BENEFIT, NOT HIS) and tinkered with his threatened tariffs, leaving the global trading system pretty much where it stood three months ago — in a state of limbo as businesses delay decisions on investments, contracts and hiring because they don’t know what the rules will be.

“It’s a rerun, basically,’’ said William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official. "Trump and his team “don’t have the deals they want. So they’re piling on the threats.”

The pattern has repeated itself enough times to earn Trump the label TACO — an acronym coined by The Financial Times’ Robert Armstrong that stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

“This is classic Trump: Threaten, threaten more, but then extend the deadline,” Reinsch said. “July 30 arrives, does he do it again if he still doesn’t have the deals?’’ (Trump said Tuesday that there will be no more extensions, but we'll see about that.)

Trump did sign an agreement last month with the United Kingdom that, kept the baseline tariff on British products mostly in place, underlining Trump’s commitment to the 10% tax despite the United States running a trade surplus — not a deficit — with the U.K. for 19 straight years, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

“The U.S. is gambling that these countries will ultimately be intimidated and fold,” Reinsch said. “And the countries are gambling that the longer this stretches out, and the longer it goes without Trump producing any more deals, the more desperate he gets; and he lowers his standards.

“It’s kind of a giant game of chicken.’’