Let’s Blow This Taco Stand

By the time a court blocked President Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law, a meme had already taken hold among Wall Streeters and made its way to a presidential press conference. “The TACO trade, short for Trump Always Chickens Out, is a tongue-in-cheek term coined by the 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 Mr. Trump makes tariff threats, only to rebound sharply when he relents and allows countries more time to negotiate deals.” While the TACO acronym might ring muy verdad, this issue never should have made it to the courts. Liberation Day only turned into Litigation Day because the legislative branch failed to stand up to a rogue president by claiming its unique role when it comes to imposing tariffs. The law on this matter really couldn’t be more clear, so why have legislators failed to stand up for themselves or the country? Let’s call it what it is: Congress Has Acquiesced Like Unbelievably Pathetic A**holes. Or it you prefer the acronym: CHALUPA.

+ TNR: A Trade Court Stopped Trump’s Tariffs. Why Didn’t Congress? “None of this should have required this court to step in and save the day. The ersatz national emergency that Trump cooked up as justification for his revenue-hungry tariffs ought to have been put to rest by means of a congressional joint resolution. Before Trump, no president had ever claimed [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] authority to impose a tariff. But today’s Republican-controlled Congress is James Madison’s worst nightmare, too frozen by terror of a vindictive chief executive to check his power.”

+ QZ: The trade war enters a new phase: What to watch over the next 10 days. Forget the next 10 days. Let’s focus on the next 10 minutes. An appeals court has already paused the trade court’s ruling and we should hear from SCOTUS on the matter soon.