Donald Trump hits back at 'chicken' jibe in unhinged rant: 'I'm not a coward!'

has vehemently hit back at the new mock acronym - TACO - coined to ridicule his trade stance

During a press briefing today, Trump faced queries about the so-called TACO trades, a term devised by Robert Armstrong of The Financial Times. Derisively coined as "Trump Always Chickens Out,", this term surfaced after recent market disturbances.

Challenged by a journalist over the appellation, an incensed Trump retorted: "You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set, down to 100, and then down to another number, and I said you have to open up your whole country."

Last week saw Trump threatening to slap a 50% tax on imports from the European Union starting in June, yet he subsequently postponed this tariff increment until July 9. This allowed a window for dialogue while holding the typical 10% tariff steady.

In defiance, Trump asserted: "After I did what I did they said 'we'll meet any time you want' and 'we have an end date of July 9th,' you call that chickening-out?", reports

Boasting about America's status, Trump belittled the journalist for the question asked.

"You know, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. I went to Saudi Arabia, the king told me, he said 'we have the hottest country in the world right now'," announced Trump.

"Six months ago this country was stone cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country people didn't think was going to survive and you ask a nasty question like that."

Trump has hit back at critics who accuse him of "chickening out," insisting his tactics are simply savvy negotiation strategies, with China as a prime example.

The former US President stood by his decision to initially hike tariffs on Chinese goods to an eye-watering 145% before scaling them down to 30% to open up a 90-day negotiation period.

"I said 'where are we now?' We're at 145%, I said 'woo, that's high, that's high'...we were basically going cold turkey with China, we were doing no business, because of the tariff, because it was so high," Trump vented in his characteristic style.

He then turned his ire towards the journalist who had the audacity to question his methods.

"But don't ever say what you said, that's a nasty question, to me, that's the nastiest question," Trump fumed.

Trump also claimed that European leaders wouldn't even entertain the idea of negotiations if not for his bold move of imposing a hefty 50% tariff, despite often facing criticism for being "too tough."