Kmflett's Blog

The FT (29th December 2025) named its word or more properly anacronym of 2025 which was Taco. Not the tasty food but Trump Always Chickens Out.

Robert Armstrong who coined the word notes that its popularity signifies how thin skinned Trump is to criticisms of his policies, perhaps particularly in 2025 tariffs.

Armstrong argues that Taco underlines that Trump doesn’t really have any policies but is rather a ‘gifted reality TV star’.

I certainly don’t buy Armstrong’s point that Trump is not running an authoritarian Government.

However if we refocus Armstrong’s anacronym to in the context of the Situationists Society of the Spectacle (Guy Debord) we can see that Trump primarily promotes a brand-himself. Taco is an alternative reading of that brand and in this sense quite a subversive one.