'Goading him': Analyst sees Trump seething after Oval Office jibe

President Donald Trump has been "goaded" by recent mockery of his tariff agenda into harshening it, said Bharat Ramamurti, former director of the U.S. National Economic Council, in a panel discussion on MSNBC Thursday evening.

In particular, Trump was enraged by the TACO ("Trump Always Chickens Out") meme circulating to make fun of how he keeps walking back his tariff threats. He blew up at a reporter who asked him about it this week.

And this comes at the same time federal courts are moving to pump the brakes on his tariffs altogether, although orders doing so are currently on hold as an appeals court considers the issue.

"I want to underscore all of the lies that are happening here," said anchor Alicia Menendez. "There was a lie that this administration was going to bring manufacturing back to the United States. There was a lie that these tariffs were going to bring down prices for American consumers. And there was a lie that somehow this tariff war was going to make America stronger in the world. Prices have not come down. Manufacturing is not back in this country. And our allies are beginning to create new allyships and new trading partnerships because they're not certain they can rely on us. So he has to now own all of that."

"That's exactly right," agreed Ramamurti.

"You know, there is a way of doing this where you pair some targeted tariffs with some real strategic investment in manufacturing, and then you work with our allies to go after what you think are unfair trade practices in China," Ramamurti said. "We should be working with Japan and South Korea and Vietnam in a partnership against China. Instead, because of the way that they've gone about this, those countries are actually seeking out agreements with China because in some ways, they feel like it's a more stable trading relationship than the United States right now. He's actually turned away our allies in what should be a joint effort to take on Chinese manufacturing and bring some of that back to our shores. And so it has backfired across the board. It's a political loser."

"But I think that, you know, there's been a lot of discussion lately of TACO, right? Trump Always Chickens Out," Ramamurti continued. "And I think that that is honestly goading him into escalation on this issue. And I wouldn't be surprised if, regardless of what the court says in this case, they start to pursue those other legal avenues to impose tariffs using other legal authorities and to just keep the train moving, because that's going to generate more court cases. And but all throughout that time, those, those tariffs will be in place."

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