Not chickening out on tariffs

President Donald Trump on Wednesday pushed back against an emerging critique of his on-again, off-again tariff threats, which has been derisively summed up as the “TACO trade.”

The term coined by a Financial Times columnist — which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out” — describes a pattern in which Trump announces heavy new tariffs, sending markets tumbling, and then later pauses or lightens them, causing markets to rebound.

When asked by CNBC about the term at the White House, Trump denied that he had ever backed down and suggested that his moves have helped the U.S. gain ground in trade negotiations.

“After I did what I did, they said, ‘We’ll meet anytime you want,'” Trump said of the European Union, which he had recently targeted with a 50% U.S. tariff — before announcing two days later that he was delaying that new levy.

“You call that chickening out?” Trump said.

“It’s called negotiation,” he added, after criticizing the question as “nasty.”

Trump went on to credit the 50% tariff threat with jumpstarting trade talks between the U.S. and the EU.

“The sad thing is, now, when I make a deal with them, it’s something much more reasonable, they’ll say, ‘Oh, he was chicken, he was chicken,'” Trump said. “That’s so unbelievable.”

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

— CNBC’s Laya Neelakandan contributed to this report.