Stephen King’s latest jab at President Donald Trump has racked up more than 1.5 million views on social media in just a day.
The post, “TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out,” comes as “TACO” memes mocking the president have taken off online over the president’s tariff policies.
In response, White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Newsweek, “Art is a reflection of the artist, and these asinine acronyms convey how unserious analysts have consistently beclowned themselves by mocking President Trump and his agenda that’ve already delivered multiple expectation-beating jobs and inflation reports, trillions in investment commitments, a historic UK trade agreement, and rising consumer confidence.”
Newsweek has reached out to King’s press team for comment via email on Friday.
Why It Matters
On April 2, Trump announced a series of sweeping global tariffs, including a baseline 10 percent on all imported goods and the widely anticipated “reciprocal” tariffs. Their implementation led the stock markets to drop drastically, with Wall Street posting its worst losses since 2020 and trillions of dollars in value erased.
Shortly after the “reciprocal” tariffs took effect in April, Trump paused most of them for 90 days, prompting a surge in the markets. Since Trump took office, global markets have faced significant uncertainty amid the frequent announcement, implementation, suspension and, at times, reimposition of various trade and tariff policies.
The president has also publicly pressured Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, to lower interest rates and suggested at one point he might fire Powell before backing down again.
What To Know
King’s viral post on X, formerly Twitter, comes as criticism of Trump’s economic and diplomatic strategies continued to intensify online. The post has nearly 8,000 reshares and over 56,000 likes. King has previously had viral social media posts critiquing Trump and his policies.
TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 29, 2025
The term “TACO” originated in financial circles as a quip about Trump’s tariff threats and perceived unpredictability.
On Wednesday, CNBC’s Megan Casella alluded to Trump’s repeated tariff threats while asking him about the “TACO trade” theory. Trump shot back at Casella, accusing her of asking the “nastiest” question and telling her to never ask it again.
“I’ve never heard that. You mean because I reduced China from 145 percent that I set down to 100, and then down to another number, and I said you have to open up your whole country?” Trump said. “And because I gave the European Union a 50 percent tax—tariff—and they called up and said, ‘Please let’s meet right now.'”
“And I said, ok, I’ll give you til July 9—I actually asked them, I said what’s the date, because they weren’t willing to meet,” Trump added, referring to the EU tariffs. “And after I did what I did, they said, ‘We’ll meet any time you want.’ And we have an end date of July 9.”
“You call that chickening out?” Trump said before going on to emphasize the investments that multiple companies have pledged to make in the U.S.
Following the encounter, hundreds of TACO Trump memes have flooded online platforms, with some users posting photos of Trump as a chicken or inside a taco and often using the hashtag #TACOTrump.
What People Are Saying
Justin Wolfers, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, told MSNBC on Tuesday: “There’s an asset here that really matters called American credibility. There was a time when the president opened his mouth, when you had to pay attention because you thought it meant something, that it was a shift in policy that other countries could rely on and respond to. That’s no longer the case. In fact, on Wall Street right now—and it’s on one level funny and on another level tragic—there’s a trade called the TACO trade. T-A-C-O: Trump always chickens out.”
Chris Beauchamp, the chief market analyst at IG Group, said after Tuesday’s stock rally: “TACO trade triumphs once again.”
What Happens Next
Trump announced over the long weekend that the latest round of tariffs will be delayed until July 9, while U.S. and EU officials hold trade discussions.
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