TACO Thursday
Regular customers won't be too surprised by Thursday morning's No. 8 story at the Fair 'n' Balanced homepage (right). Putting those meddling reporters in their place, after all, is the sort of signature Trump Dance move that keeps the audience coming back. But it might be entertaining to tune up the old press-presidency time machine and see how things looked a couple years ago.
First up -- now that the ketchup has been scraped from the walls -- is the debut of "TACO trade" on the Fox pages:
President Donald Trump ripped a reporter in the Oval Office Wednesday for asking a "nasty question" about his tariff deals.
"Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the TACO trade. They’re saying, ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’ - on your tariff threats. And that’s why markets are higher this week. What’s your response to that?" CNBC White House correspondent Megan Casella asked during a brief gaggle.
"Oh, isn’t that nice. ‘Chicken out.’ I’ve never heard that," Trump responded. "You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to 100 and then down to another number? I said, ‘You have to open your whole country.’"
Got it. "Another number." But let's go ahead and wander around the playroom with "one of the 'most accessible' presidents in modern history" for a while.
He went on, "And because I gave the European Union a 50% tariff? And they called up, and they said, ‘Please, let’s meet right now.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I’ll give you until June.’ I actually asked them, I said, 'What's the date?' Because they weren't willing to meet. And after I did what I did, they said, ‘We'll meet anytime you want.’ And we have an end date of July 9. You call that chickening out? Because we have $14 trillion now invested, committed to investing when Biden didn't have practically anything."
Trump contrasted the situation with the Biden administration, saying the U.S. was "stone-cold dead" six months ago.
"We had a dead country. We had a country people didn't think was going to survive. And you ask a nasty question like that? It's called negotiation," Trump said.
Well, that ought to show them. But bear with us a moment while we return to the days of his "largely hidden" predecessor -- say, the evening's top story of June 16, 2023:
President Biden appeared to laugh off a question from a reporter Tuesday when asked about the potential audio recordings of his conversations with a Burisma executive who alleges he bribed Biden during his time as vice president.
"Are there tapes that you accepted bribes, President Biden? Is that true?" New York Post reporter Steven Nelson asked the president as he departed the White House East Room following an event.
Biden seemingly found the question amusing. As he made his way down the White House hallway, the president abruptly stopped before turning around to face the reporter. Biden was visibly grinning and laughing to himself, but remained notably silent. He then shook his head, turned back around and continued down the hallway.
Let's set the telepathy aside for a moment and get to the nut graf:
The question was prompted by allegations exposed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, who revealed Monday that a Burisma executive who allegedly paid Joe Biden and Hunter Biden kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with them as an "insurance policy," citing the FBI FD-1023 form that the bureau briefed congressional lawmakers on.
Biden's exchange with the Post reporter didn't sit well with online critics who tore into the president for shirking off a question about the alleged bribery scandal with a laugh.
First up -- now that the ketchup has been scraped from the walls -- is the debut of "TACO trade" on the Fox pages:
President Donald Trump ripped a reporter in the Oval Office Wednesday for asking a "nasty question" about his tariff deals.
"Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the TACO trade. They’re saying, ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’ - on your tariff threats. And that’s why markets are higher this week. What’s your response to that?" CNBC White House correspondent Megan Casella asked during a brief gaggle.
"Oh, isn’t that nice. ‘Chicken out.’ I’ve never heard that," Trump responded. "You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to 100 and then down to another number? I said, ‘You have to open your whole country.’"
Got it. "Another number." But let's go ahead and wander around the playroom with "one of the 'most accessible' presidents in modern history" for a while.
He went on, "And because I gave the European Union a 50% tariff? And they called up, and they said, ‘Please, let’s meet right now.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I’ll give you until June.’ I actually asked them, I said, 'What's the date?' Because they weren't willing to meet. And after I did what I did, they said, ‘We'll meet anytime you want.’ And we have an end date of July 9. You call that chickening out? Because we have $14 trillion now invested, committed to investing when Biden didn't have practically anything."
Trump contrasted the situation with the Biden administration, saying the U.S. was "stone-cold dead" six months ago.
"We had a dead country. We had a country people didn't think was going to survive. And you ask a nasty question like that? It's called negotiation," Trump said.
Well, that ought to show them. But bear with us a moment while we return to the days of his "largely hidden" predecessor -- say, the evening's top story of June 16, 2023:
President Biden appeared to laugh off a question from a reporter Tuesday when asked about the potential audio recordings of his conversations with a Burisma executive who alleges he bribed Biden during his time as vice president.
"Are there tapes that you accepted bribes, President Biden? Is that true?" New York Post reporter Steven Nelson asked the president as he departed the White House East Room following an event.
Biden seemingly found the question amusing. As he made his way down the White House hallway, the president abruptly stopped before turning around to face the reporter. Biden was visibly grinning and laughing to himself, but remained notably silent. He then shook his head, turned back around and continued down the hallway.
Let's set the telepathy aside for a moment and get to the nut graf:
The question was prompted by allegations exposed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, who revealed Monday that a Burisma executive who allegedly paid Joe Biden and Hunter Biden kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with them as an "insurance policy," citing the FBI FD-1023 form that the bureau briefed congressional lawmakers on.
Biden's exchange with the Post reporter didn't sit well with online critics who tore into the president for shirking off a question about the alleged bribery scandal with a laugh.
posted by fev at 9:28 PM
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