Trump Always Chickens Out

Trump es un pollo

I first saw this story in a video this morning while I was in the lobby of my Washington, DC hotel. I didn’t know it was a big story yet, so I texted it to my colleague Lalo, whom I had just spent the past two nights hanging with. We were laughing about how could we not draw tacos today.

Soon after, I saw that everyone was talking about it, which meant it was a big story, which also meant it would be today’s cartoon subject. How could I not draw a taco, or in my case, tacos plural?

TACO is now a reference to how markets are responding to Trump’s tariff policies. It’s an acronym for Trump Always Chickens Out.

The term was created by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong. It has been adopted by some analysts and commentators to describe the potentially lucrative pattern in which markets tumble after Trump makes tariff threats, only to rebound sharply after he backs down. He’s threatened and placed tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and others, only to back down later. You know, chicken out.

Bok! Bok! Bok! Donald Trump is a big fat ass orange chicken. The man is a coward.

Donald Trump does NOT like this term. First off, he hates Latinos and any other race that’s not White. He’s a xenophobic racist asshole. He doesn’t like Jews or women that much either. Remember when he celebrated Cinco de Mayo by sharing a photo of himself in his Trump Tower office with a taco bowl? He thought that was connecting with Latinos.

Forget the “rapists and murderers” comment and the comment that a judge of Mexican descent couldn’t oversee a trial where he was being sued, Trump likes taco bowls…or at least posing with them.

Trump was asked about the TACO reference yesterday by a reporter in the Oval Office (one who will probably never be invited back), and if the term might be a valid description of his approach to tariffs. Trump lost his shit.

First off, the term calls him a coward. Secondly, tacos are Latino, which is another insult to him.

“I chicken out? I’ve never heard that,” Trump said. “Don’t ever say what you said,” he told the reporter. “That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.” Is it nastier than asking about the pee-pee tapes?

Within that angry outburst, Trump gave more signs that he believes he is a dictator and can tell people who don’t work for him what they can and can’t say. If he thinks that was a “nasty” question, then he’s really going to think this cartoon is nasty. Hey, it’s what I do.

The reference is correct. Markets jumped up on Tuesday after Trump announced a delay of the 50 percent tariffs he was going to place on the EU.

Donald Trump is starting fights he can’t win. It’s not that he doesn’t have the power to win, but he’d have better footing if he didn’t start the fights. But the bigger reason he can’t win these fights is that he doesn’t have the backbone to win fights.

Trump fancies himself as a muscular tough guy. He even tweets “artwork” created by Artificial Intelligence, showing him with muscles. But at this point, the only people who don’t realize he’s a coward are the same people who believe he was a great president and the successful businessman he portrayed on The Apprentice.

Everyone who’s had to negotiate with Trump, from Canada to China to the EU to Nancy Pelosi, knows that Donald Trump is a huge, cowardly chicken who can’t negotiate.

And now, Donald Trump is such a chicken that he’s afraid of tacos.

Herblock Awards, 2025

I had a great time at last night’s Herblock Awards presentation at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The winner of this year’s Herblock Prize is Marty Two Bulls Sr., and the lecturer was Deloras Huerta. Marty had to do something else and was represented by his son, Marty Two Bulls Jr., who is a very lovely guy, and I had a nice time talking to him (along with Marty’s brother and his wife).

At one point during her lecture, Ms. Huerta told everyone in the audience to take the hand of the person sitting next to them and say, “Thank you, African-American.” So, the man sitting next to me grabbed my hand and said, “Say, ‘thank you, African-American.’”

The man sitting next to me just so happened to be my best friend, Gordon Johnson, one of the few actual African-Americans in the theater.

Gordon, his son Riley, and the White guy is me.

Later, Gordo told me I was one of the few who got to say, “Thank you, African-American” to an actual African-American.” A lady sitting behind us tapped Gordon on his shoulder before the event started to let him know that Barack Obama spoke at one of these things. I expected her to say that she would have voted for Obama a third time if she could have.

I took a quick selfie in the rain on my way to the event in front of the L’enfant metro station. It’s not every day I wear a suit. I’m not Michael Ramirez, who puts on a suit to draw in his home office.

Photo credit: Mike Rhode

Lalo stopped by our table and made us laugh.

The two on the right (L-R) are Richard Prince, the author of the blog Journal-isms, and my friend Mike Rhode, the author of the blog ComicsDC.

I got to see my friends Carolyn Belefski, Mike Jenkins’ brother, whose name I forgot, who later told Mike that I looked like a Republican in my suit (fucker), and Mike Jenkins.

I was walking by when they were about to take a photo of these guys, and I was asked to jump in, so I did.

From left to right, Mike Rhode, Iranian-American cartoonist Nik Kowsar, Matt Wuerker from Politico, Rob Rogers, and Amy Lago, who runs Counterpoint.

Lalo and I hung out again after the event. We’re showing what we think of Congress right now.

I love Lalo, who was saying, “Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.”

Hate comment

This one is from a share of one of my cartoons on Daily Kos’ Facebook page.

These things don’t bother me. They amuse me.

Creative note: I had two hours in the lobby of my hotel after checking out to write an idea before my train left at 1 p.m. I failed. I did have a couple of ideas, but one involved a roller coaster, and I hate drawing roller coasters. So, I wrote today’s on the train, along with a couple of others. I liked this one because it’s silly. For me, the sillier the better. I roughed it out on the train and even completed the lettering before I got to the Burg. I was on the VRE, which doesn’t have a cafe car and tables like Amtrak, so I had to draw on my lap. It’s hard.

Music note: I listened to The Killers and the Kaiser Chiefs.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse:

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