Donald Trump recently lashed out at a reporter who the president said asked a "nasty" question, and another reporter on Saturday explained exactly why the commander-in-chief was "even more frustrated" by the inquiry.
Semafor's Shelby Talcott, who recently was in the Oval Office with Trump, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday to talk about Trump's recent actions.
After a segment on an Iran report that "frustrated' the Trump administration, the host asked Talcott about the question, which centered around TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out, which is a derogatory nicknamed Wall Street investors are reportedly using to trade off of Trump's purported tendency to cave to tariff pressure.
EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade
The host, Alex Witt, said Trump was "really lashing out at the insinuation that he keeps chickening out when it comes to implementing his tariff plan," and played a video of the reporter asking the question. That query "rubbed him the wrong way," Witt said.
"I mean, he normally loves a nickname or some kind of a quippy acronym," she added.
After experiencing a minor audio issue, Talcott said, "This is something that, you know, President Trump sort of touts his deal-making abilities, and so to be called a chicken, and in this sense, it's not surprising that he got frustrated."
Then she explained what her sources have been telling her regarding Trump's reply.
"But I'm also told, you know, he sort of alluded to this in his answer. He wasn't aware of this term before this reporter asked him, and so that sort of caught him off guard and frustrated him even more," she said.
Witt added, "TACO, it's, you know, kind of quippy. I mean, he's used to dishing it out. I'm just saying."