TACO Don: Why a Seemingly Silly Insult Hits Donald Trump Where It Hurts [View all]

Rick Wilson

Among all the barbs hurled at Donald Trump over the years — from the devastatingly clinical takedowns by career prosecutors to the meme-worthy Twitter dunks — few insults have had the sheer, inexplicable sting of being called “TACO.”

“Trump Always Chickens Out.”

Penned by Wall Street wags tired of his trade war pump-and-dump behavior, the so-called Masters of the Universe finally understand that Trump’s trade war is like Trump himself: stochastic boasting, deep-vein chaos, juvenile bluster backed up by … nothing.

It’s short, sharp, silly on its face — but beneath that shell is a devastating payload. Like so many things with Trump, the humor strikes a deeper, raw nerve. The insult enrages him not because it’s the cruelest or cleverest, but because it’s the most diminishing. And Donald Trump cannot survive being made small.

You could see it today when a reporter asked him about it — his slow, bovine mind registering the insult gradually, but deeply. His snippish responses belied his rage. As an anthropologist of this hideous creature, one of my perverse delights is watching him try to hide that rage as his spun-sugar ego takes a hit. Having delivered many such hits myself, I like to call it an allowable cruelty.

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