President Donald Trump’s back-and-forth with Iran over opening the Strait of Hormuz has led to a new nickname inspired by TACO, the president’s acronym nickname for issuing and reversing threats.
“We thought we were getting a TACO, ‘Trump Always Chickens Out.’ But so far we are getting a NACHO, ‘Not A Chance Hormuz Opens,’” Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas wrote on X.
The new nickname, bestowed by a financial trader, according to Blas, reflects the public’s frustration with the on-again, off-again blockade in the Strait that has disrupted global oil supply, causing gas prices to rise.
But it also indicates that some are not confident Trump can secure a deal with Iran that will alleviate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and allow ships carrying oil to pass through.
Despite being in the middle of a ceasefire, Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. has initiated a blockade of Iranian ports. Iran has offered to reopen the waterway if the U.S. concludes its blockade, but the president has refused unless Iran concedes to his demands about ending its nuclear enrichment program.
Already, peace talks between the U.S., Israel and Iran have failed once, and an attempt at a second round of negotiations fell through this past week when Trump summoned his top negotiators back to D.C.
Gas prices have gone up across the country as a result of traffic being halted in the Strait, the waterway responsible for transporting roughly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil supply. Earlier this month, the average cost of a gallon of regular gas hit $4 for the first time since August 2022.
The Independent has asked the White House for comment.
The new nickname for the president is a direct spin-off of “TACO,” which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. It’s been used to insult the president for issuing meaningless threats that he does not fulfill.
“TACO” originated from a Financial Times columnist who observed Trump’s pattern of making tariff threats, causing market disruptions and then reversing them.
Wall Street traders have used the term “TACO” to describe the process of buying stocks after the president announced certain tariffs, then selling them later when those tariff threats are reversed or changed.
When asked about the nickname last year, Trump called it “the nastiest question” and denied chickening out.
“I chicken out? Oh, I’ve never heard that,” the president said before claiming his method was “called negotiation.”
Trump allies on Fox News initially tried to take back the “TACO” acronym with its own version of “NACHO” – Never Avoids Confronting Hard Obstacles.
That version, seemingly, failed to catch on.
