TACO Trump TACOed Out.

My colleague, Mary Pezzulo, wrote an insightful post yesterday about Trump’s propensity for creating states of worldwide panic and then backing off.

He does this so often that there is a popular acronym for it — TACO. TACO stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

I don’t think the phrase “Trump Always Chickens Out” is based on disappointment that Trump has swerved away from whatever cliff he’s threatening to hurtle us off of. Nobody’s disappointed that TACO Trump has, once again, veered off from the latest disaster he has created. That’s not what TACO means.

The acronym TACO is more a reflection of the contempt in which Trump is held by people who have to make decisions based on American policy. It’s also a way of reassuring the public when he once again pushes the whole world to the edge.

The phrase TACO originated in the stock market. It was and is used as a way of keeping investors from deep-sixing the entire economy by stampeding into panic selling that would lead to a market meltdown. When Trump does one of his idiotic and destructive things, brokers and market leaders tell the investing public  “Hold. Don’t sell. Trump Always Chickens Out.”

A few months ago, Trump took us to the brink of war with the UK, France and Norway over his attempts to bully Norway into handing Greenland over to the United States. Then, he claimed victory because he said he’d gotten a “deal.”

The truth of that situation is that Norway had been our ally for 80 years. America could always have gotten a deal — and a much better one than what Trump got — with Norway anytime they wanted it.

Now, he’s spent a week threatening to use the power of this country to murder all of the 90 million people living in Iran. In his own words, he said he was going to destroy an entire civilization. Then Pakistan said “let’s do a ceasefire,” which gave Trump the off ramp he wanted. So, Trump announced he was going to do a two-week stand down.

TACO.

I think Trump is an idiot for getting us into this stupid and needless war. I believe that He was an idiot for what he did over Greenland.

I think Trump creates these situations because he gets off on using the power of the United States to terrify and batter whole nations. I think he gets satisfaction from the sense of dominance it gives him when he creates terror and chaos on a global scale.

I think that Trump is using America’s military and economic power to act out a kind of psychological and political rape on the American people and other nations. It seems to me that he’s inflicting the same kind of sadistic dominance, terror and pain on the entire world that he inflicted on his victims in his long career as a serial sexual predator.

I also think that if we ever get into a real war with someone who can actually hurt us and we still have this sadistic, incompetent idiot as our Commander in Chief, we will be in big trouble.

Having said all that, there is another, even more horrible, side to these games Trump plays with our lives. When Trump tires of playing his sadistic game and TACOs out, it doesn’t bring the people he has killed back to life.

The people Trump has killed are dead. The people who have been maimed are still suffering. TACO didn’t save them.

Renee Good, Alex Pretti and all the other people ICE has murdered are dead. The people ICE has maimed and injured are still suffering and struggling.

The hundreds of thousands of people who have starved to death because of the cuts to USAID are dead.

The people who have died and who are going to die because of cuts to Medicaid are dead or will be dead. The ones who suffer disability that medical care would have prevented will still be disabled.

The people who’ve died in the bombings in Iran are dead. The members of our military who have been killed in this senseless war are dead. The soldiers and marines who were injured and maimed will live with the consequences of the thoughtless cruelty and disregard for life of this Mad King for the rest of their lives.

TACO doesn’t bring the dead back to life.

These people are dead. If Trump had not been elected, they would still be alive.

These people are disabled. If Trump had not been elected, they would still be whole.

Nothing can repair that. Nothing can fix it. Nothing can make it right.

I am glad, but not surprised, that TACO Trump has TACOed out once again.

But I realize that in grown-up, full-speed politics, electing a monster has long term consequences. The whole world is watching and people who are not under the demonic influence that makes so many Americans worship at the altar of Trump are taking a cold, clear look at what is happening.

They know, even better than we do, that Trump always TACOs out. They know, even better than we do, that America’s foreign policy is now nothing more than demands for bribes to a handful of billionaires. They understand that America is being plundered and stripped by those same billionaires.

Mary Pezzulo’s post was an acknowledgement of what sane people the world over know; that Trump is a liar, a braggart, and an incompetent. They know that he’s taken billions in contracts from foreign powers for his company and that he’s always got his hand out for a big juicy “gift” like, say, a new jet.

I think Trump wants to shuck the Iran war. I think that if the Iranis let him, that he will just turn to creating some other crisis and forget all about the people who have died at his hand in this needless war.

The problem for quite some time now has been that the Iranis haven’t wanted to just meekly bury their dead, rebuild their buildings and call it good. What they’ll do now, I do not know.

I believe that this needless war for nothing at all is just the latest — but not the last — terrible thing that Trump has done. He dumps a fresh load of offal on us almost every day.

The one bright spot in all of this is that Jesus-worshipping Christian religious leaders have finally started to speak up in defense of the Gospels. I am both proud and relieved to say that  the Catholic Church has been among them.

I’m proud of my church, and it feels good.