By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-06-17 20:03:06 | Updated at 2026-06-19 04:13:44
1 day ago
MS NOW's Stephanie Ruhle revived a tired acronym to taunt Donald Trump and mock his tentative peace pact with Iran on Wednesday.
'TACO, the war edition,' the Money, Power, Politics host said after hearing a gloomy assessment from MS NOW Senior National Security Reporter David Rohde.
TACO stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. The phrase was popularized by watchers of Wall Street last year to criticize Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs, most of which were pulled within a week.
Rohde laughed in response. He had just finished explaining to Ruhle why 'no country in the Middle East' would view the deal favorably.
He said he agreed with New York Times opinion writer Bret Stephens, a conservative who called the current situation 'a debacle' in a Tuesday op-ed.
The piece was titled 'Iran Found Trump’s Bone Spur,' Ruhle eagerly noted. Trump avoided the Vietnam draft in 1968 via a medical deferment that cited the condition.
'This is Bret Stephens, OK? A conservative writer who supported the war when it started. What does that tell you?' Ruhle said.
'When we come out of this, who's going to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump saying, "Right on, this was great?"
'TACO, the war edition,' the Money, Power, Politics host said as news of the preliminary agreement to end the war with Iran began to reach MS NOW on Wednesday
TACO stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. The phrase was popularized by watchers of Wall Street last year to criticize Trump's short-lived 'Liberation Day' tariffs in May 2025
'With the exception of tech leaders who have made so much money they're not even living on planet earth.'
Rohde agreed, minutes after maintaining 'Trump is losing in Iran.'
Sparse details of the 14-point agreement released by the White House later in the day were available by that point.
Former Department of Defense official Richard Haass took issue with the billions of dollars pledged for the 'reconstruction and economic development' of Iran after months of bombings.
'We're talking about significant economic help for Iran, full extent to be determined.'
He also hesitated at promises from both the US and Iran to 'not get involved in the internal affairs of the other country.'
'That's a pretty big drop off from four months ago - we were talking about regime change. Now we're talking about helping these guys economically.'
It was later revealed that $300 billion would be set aside for the reconstruction fund, though the US is not required to contribute.
The remark drew smiles and laughs from Former Department of Defense official Richard Haass and MS NOW Senior National Security Reporter David Rohde
Trump, while touting the deal at the G7 summit in France, said he hoped other countries would kick in.
The agreement - which has yet to be finalized - also demands the 'immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.'
The US and Iran must also 'commit to negotiating and achieving the final deal in maximum 60 days, extendable with mutual consent.'
It also allows 60 days for negotiations for a final deal and stipulates that Iran may never have a nuclear weapon.
Rohde concluded that President Trump 'launched a war of choice.'
'The really big issue was ground troops,' he said. 'If he really wanted to win this war, he would need to take Kharg Island or actually, I think, land some troops in Iran,' he said, before hitting his and Ruhle's point home.
'I'm not saying we should invade Iran with our ground troops, but when you go to war, you must fight totally and completely and show personal courage. And he blinked.
'President Trump kept dropping bombs, and it didn't work.'
