0:00 Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have
0:01 coined a new term called the taco trade.
0:03 They're saying Trump always chickens out
0:06 on your tariff threats, and that's why
0:07 markets are higher this week. What's
0:09 your response to that? I kick out.
0:11 Chicken out. Oh, isn't that chicken out?
0:14 I've never heard that. You mean because
0:16 I reduced China from 145% that I set
0:20 down to 100 and then down to another
0:22 number and I said you have to open up
0:24 your whole country and because uh I I
0:28 gave the European Union a 50% tax uh
0:32 tariff and they called up and they said
0:35 please let's meet right now. Please
0:37 let's meet right now. And I said okay
0:39 I'll give you till Janine. I actually
0:42 asked them I said what's the date?
0:43 because they weren't willing to meet.
0:45 And after I did what I did, they said,
0:48 "We'll meet anytime you want." And we
0:51 have an end date of July 9th. You call
0:54 that chickening out. Six months ago,
0:56 this country was stone cold dead. We had
0:59 a dead country. We had a country people
1:01 didn't think it was going to survive.
1:02 And you ask a nasty question like that.
1:05 Uh it's called negotiation. But don't
1:07 ever say what you said. One of the most
1:10 dangerous illusions of our time is the
1:14 belief that we can substitute ridicule
1:18 for reason and expect to remain a free
1:22 people. The modern age has traded the
1:25 discipline of reason debate for the
1:27 fleeting thrill of viral memes. Ideas
1:30 are no longer judged by their evidence,
1:32 but by their ability to capture
1:34 attention. In a world where attention is
1:37 the new currency, facts are buried
1:39 beneath slogans and truth is drowned out
1:42 by the clamor of clever images. This
1:44 intellectual decline is nowhere more
1:46 evident than in the political left's
1:48 obsession with anti-Trump memes
1:51 epitomized by the taco meme, short for
1:55 Trump always chickens out. This meme
1:57 born from a recent interview where
1:59 President Trump defended his trade
2:01 negotiations with China and the European
2:04 Union accuses him of backing down from
2:07 tariff threats. But this is not humor.
2:10 It is propaganda in the spirit of Joseph
2:13 Goby who understood that a lie repeated
2:16 often enough can masquerade as truth.
2:20 The task today is to dismantle this
2:22 tactic with facts, expose its
2:24 consequences, and make the case for
2:27 restoring discourse grounded in evidence
2:31 and reason. The taco meme emerged after
2:33 President Trump discussed his
2:35 administration's trade policies,
2:37 particularly tariffs aimed at addressing
2:39 imbalances with China and the EU. of
2:42 these tariffs intended to protect
2:43 American industries and reduce a trade
2:45 deficit that reached $419 billion
2:48 dollars with China in 2018. According to
2:51 the US Census Bureau are contentious.
2:55 Critics on the left seizing on moments
2:56 where Trump delayed or adjusted tariff
2:59 plans coined taco to portray him as
3:02 lacking resolve. Newsweek reported on
3:04 May 28th that the meme spread rapidly
3:06 online, featuring caricatures of Trump
3:09 as a taco or a chicken. Wall Street
3:11 traders, as noted by the New York Times
3:13 on May 29th, even adopted the term
3:16 tackle trade to describe market bets on
3:18 tariff delays, sparking rallies. This is
3:21 not a justest. It is a calculated effort
3:24 to shape public perception through
3:25 mockery rather than substance. Boomer
3:28 can illuminate truth or puncture
3:30 pretense, but when weaponized to obscure
3:32 facts and derail policy debate, it
3:35 becomes propaganda. The taco meme is not
3:38 a critique. It is a caricature designed
3:41 to undermine Trump's policies without
3:44 engaging their merits. As I wrote in
3:46 Intellectuals and Society, the power of
3:48 a vision is that it obviates the need to
3:51 think. The taco meme is such a vision, a
3:54 simplistic narrative that shortcircuits
3:57 thought and replaces evidence with
3:58 emotion. This tactic echoes Gerbal's
4:01 1930s principle that a lie repeated
4:04 often enough becomes believed. Bypassing
4:07 the complexities of trade policy to
4:09 cement an image of weakness. To grasp
4:12 why this matters, consider the economic
4:14 realities the meme
4:16 ignores. Tariffs, as I explained in
4:18 basic economics, involve tradeoffs. They
4:21 can protect domestic industries by
4:24 raising foreign goods costs, but they
4:27 also increase consumer prices and risk
4:30 retaliatory barriers. The Yale Budget
4:33 Lab estimated in 2025 that Trump's
4:35 tariffs could cost households
4:38 $3,800 annually with the poorest losing
4:42 $1,700. Significant burdens. Yet, the
4:45 meme sidesteps these costs and the
4:47 context. China's trade practices,
4:50 including currency manipulation and
4:51 intellectual property theft, cost
4:54 American firms $600 billion annually per
4:58 a 2019 US Trade Representative report.
5:01 Trump's tariff threats, as he explained,
5:02 a leverage to secure concessions like
5:05 the 2020 phase 1 trade deal, which
5:08 boosted US agricultural exports to China
5:11 by 12.5 billion, according to the USDA.
5:15 Whether these tactics succeed is
5:17 debatable, but debate requires data, not
5:20 derision. The left's reliance on means
5:23 reflects a broader intellectual failure.
5:25 In the vision of the anointed, I argue
5:27 that the self-
5:28 congratulatory elite dismiss opposing
5:30 views without scrutiny, believing their
5:33 moral vision trumps reality. The taco
5:35 meme exemplifies this. It does not
5:38 refute tariffs with economic models like
5:40 the 6% consumer price increase caused by
5:43 the Smoot Holly tariff act of 1930 which
5:46 deepened the Great Depression by
5:48 slashing global trade 14%. It does not
5:51 compare Trump's tariffs to the Obama era
5:54 Trans-Pacific Partnership which aimed to
5:57 counter China but faltered on labor and
5:59 environmental issues. Instead, it mocks
6:03 appealing to emotions over reason. This
6:05 is intellectual junk food, addictive,
6:09 empty, and corrosive to the body
6:11 politic. Consider a lesson from the
6:14 1930s when radio broadcasts spread
6:16 simplistic slogans to sway public
6:19 opinion. Much like today's memes, Father
6:22 Charles Cochland, a popular radio
6:24 priest, used catchy phrases to vilify
6:26 bankers and politicians, bypassing
6:29 economic realities like the Smoot Holly
6:32 tariff acts 6% price hike that deepened
6:35 the Great Depression. The lesson was
6:38 clear. Perception amplified by media can
6:42 trump reality. Today, the taco meme,
6:45 mocking Trump's trade negotiations with
6:47 China, plays a similar role. On
6:50 platforms like X, users parrot the
6:52 meme's claim that Trump chickens out.
6:55 Yet, few can site the $419 billion China
6:59 trade deficit or the 2020 phase 1 deals
7:02 122.5 billion boost to US farm exports.
7:07 This is not discourse. It is
7:08 indoctrination masquerading as humor,
7:11 substituting laughter for the hard work
7:14 of thinking. Uh, this tactic has
7:16 historical parallels. In the 1930s, Nazi
7:19 Germany used caricatures to dehumanize
7:21 opponents, bypassing debate with images
7:24 that stuck in the public's mind. During
7:27 China's cultural revolution, slogans
7:29 like smash the fours incited mobs to
7:32 destroy libraries and lives, not because
7:34 they were true, but because they were
7:36 catchy. The taco meme operates
7:39 similarly, reducing Trump to a
7:41 caricature to dismiss his policies
7:43 without analysis. This is not to equate
7:45 the left with Nazis or Mauists. Such
7:49 comparisons are sloppy, but to highlight
7:52 a shared method, repetition and imagery
7:56 over reason. The consequences are
7:58 profound. Rational discourse is the
8:00 foundation of a free society. When means
8:02 replace arguments, we lose the ability
8:04 to evaluate policies. Tariffs are
8:06 complex. I've criticized them, warning
8:09 in the past that they risk a global
8:10 trade war, much like Smoo Holly's
8:12 fallout. My critique rests on evidence.
8:15 Smooth Holly's 6% price hike and 14%
8:18 trade drop or modern data like Yale's
8:21 $3,800 household cost estimate. The taco
8:24 meme ignores such evidence, sidest
8:26 stepping Forbes reports from 2025 that
8:28 60% tariffs on China could cost US
8:31 farmers billions or the Guardian's April
8:34 13th analysis of a potential
8:37 43% iPhone price hike. It mocks robbing
8:40 the public of critical thinking tools.
8:43 In today's polarized climate, serious
8:45 policy debates are drowned out by the
8:48 noise of memes. A news poll from April
8:52 5th found 25% of Republicans view
8:55 Trump's tariff policies as erratic,
8:58 while most Democrats reject them
9:00 outright. Yet, the discussion unfolds
9:03 not in policy forums, but on social
9:05 media, where taco memes caricature
9:09 Trump's trade negotiations with China.
9:11 This echoes the 1930s when newspaper
9:14 cartoons mocked Herbert Hoover's
9:17 economic policies, ignoring the Smooth
9:19 Holly tariff acts 6% price hike that
9:23 crippled global trade. Then, as now,
9:26 perception shaped by simplistic imagery
9:29 trumped reality. The real question is
9:31 not what trade policy is best, but who
9:34 gets to decide? Reasoned citizens or the
9:37 viral mob? Memes like taco make that
9:41 choice for you. Substituting laughter
9:43 for evidence and consent consider
9:47 another historical
9:49 parallel. Nixon's wage and price
9:52 controls in the
9:53 1970s. As an economist then I saw how
9:57 well-intentioned policies caused
9:59 shortages and inflation. Gas lines
10:01 stretched for blocks and grocery shelves
10:04 emptied. The public was swayed by
10:06 slogans, not economics. Today, memes
10:10 play that role. Another news report
10:13 noted AI generated memes mocking tariff
10:17 hit Americans, amplifying emotion over
10:20 facts. This is regression to a time when
10:23 rhetoric trumped reason. Some claim
10:26 memes are harmless, engaging young
10:28 people in politics, but engagement
10:30 without substance is hollow. At the
10:32 University of Chicago under Milton
10:34 Freriedman, we learn to question
10:35 assumptions and demand evidence. A meme
10:38 might spark a conversation, but it ends
10:41 it by reducing issues to sound bites.
10:44 The left's memes are about control, not
10:46 dialogue, creating narratives that drown
10:49 out data like the $600 billion cost of
10:52 Chinese trade practices or the 12.5
10:55 billion in farm exports from the 2020
10:59 trade deal. This mirrors past leftist
11:02 tactics in black rednecks and white
11:04 liberals. I argued that cultural
11:06 patterns, not systemic oppression, often
11:08 explain outcomes. The left's mean
11:11 culture is a pattern, prioritizing
11:14 emotion over evidence. They avoid
11:17 questions about whether Trump's tariffs
11:19 reduce the $419 billion China trade
11:22 deficit. They want you to laugh and move
11:24 on, much like terms like deplorables
11:27 dismiss millions without engagement.
11:30 Intellectuals bear much blame.
11:32 Intellectuals in society, I wrote that
11:34 they promote visions flattering their
11:36 superiority while ignoring consequences.
11:39 The taco meme uh spread by politicians
11:42 and journalists assumes the public is
11:45 too dim for policy debates, offering a
11:47 taco instead. And as I've said, the
11:50 problem isn't that Johnny can't read.
11:52 The problem isn't even that Johnny can't
11:54 think. The problem is that Johnny
11:56 doesn't know what thinking is. He
11:58 confuses it with feeling. Memes appeal
12:01 to feelings, undermining policy
12:03 engagement. Another story comes to mind.
12:05 In the 1980s, I debated a leftist on
12:08 affirmative action. He cited injustice
12:10 without data. I countered with evidence.
12:13 Blackowned businesses thrived in the
12:15 1940s under free markets, not quotas, as
12:18 historian Robert Higgs
12:20 documents. The audience cheered his
12:23 passion, but facts were on my side.
12:26 Today, memes are the new emotional
12:29 appeal, drowning out data like the $600
12:33 billion cost of Chinese trade practices
12:36 or the 2020 trade deals export gains.
12:40 The tariff debate deserves better. If
12:43 you oppose Trump's tariffs, argue the
12:46 economics, show how they raise prices,
12:49 as the Guardian did, noting a 43% iPhone
12:53 price hike risk. Compare them to the
12:56 Trans-Pacific Partnership, but do not
12:59 mock. Plato warned that a society led by
13:02 rhetoric over reason courts folly. In
13:05 this day and age, social media is our
13:09 agora and memes are the loudest voices.
13:12 The solution is not censorship. Freedom
13:14 of speech is vital, even when misused.
13:17 The solution is to demand more of
13:19 ourselves. When a meme like taco
13:22 appears, ask what it hides. Seek data.
13:27 Business insiders tariff cost estimates,
13:29 the New York Times's market analysis,
13:32 Forbes's warnings about farm losses.
13:35 Engage arguments, not images. As I wrote
13:38 in a conflict of
13:40 visions, the great evils of the world,
13:43 war, poverty, and crime, for example,
13:47 are seen in completely different terms
13:51 by those with the constrained and the
13:53 unconstrained
13:55 visions. The left's unconstrained
13:58 vision, embodied in means, imagine
14:01 slogans solve
14:03 problems. The constrained vision demands
14:05 evidence and reason. In closing,
14:08 consider this from the vision of the
14:10 anointed. When people are committed to a
14:13 vision, it is not just a matter of
14:15 evidence no longer being relevant. They
14:18 do not even want to hear a contrary
14:20 voice. Calm, reasoned, and relentless.
14:25 If we surrender to means laughter, we
14:27 risk a future where policy is decided
14:29 not by facts, but by the loudest joke.
14:32 The choice is ours. Think slowly or
14:35 laugh quickly. The consequences will
14:37 shape our nation.
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