While on the campaign trail, Donald Trump repeatedly touted the “most beautiful word in the dictionary”: tariff.
Now, as president, he has conjured up a brand new expression for those voicing dissent against his sweeping levies targeting every country – bar Russia – which he imposed last week.
As trillions of dollars are wiped from Wall Street and markets around the globe reel from his tariff onslaught, the president took to Truth Social not to reassure anxious Americans, but to call those with woes a “Panican.”
“Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN,” he wrote Monday.
Adding to his growing list of unique phrases and bizarre nicknames, what exactly is a Panican?
What is a ‘Panican’?
Trump says a Panican is a “new party” for the “weak and stupid” - those who have lost life savings and sweating big tech companies that have seen millions wiped off their market value.
The ‘panic’ part is self-evident - anyone worried about the economic impact of his sweeping tariffs. The ‘can’ at the end could either refer to Americans generally or more pointedly, Republicans who dare to question Trump’s wisdom.
His newly-minted phrase was unleashed on social media as he faces widespread backlash after imposing 10 percent universal tariffs with around 60 countries deemed the “worst offenders” facing even higher levies.
Stock markets have continued to slide with Thursday – the day after Trump’s announcement – marking Wall Street’s single largest decline since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 with about $3.1 trillion wiped from the market.
The S&P 500, which has fallen about 10 percent since Trump’s “Liberation Day,” was down another 0.2 percent Monday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.9 percent. The Nasdaq, however, rallied by 0.1 percent.
But instead of taking a softly-softly approach with Americans fearing for their finances, the president went on the offensive.
In a defiant post, Trump told the quivering Panicans they had no place in his Republican party if they couldn’t accept his tariff gamble.
“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,” he said after spending a weekend on the golf course as markets tanked.
“Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”
What is the Panican reaction?
Jon Stewart used this week’s installment of The Daily Show to mock Donald Trump's new nickname for those concerned about his trade tariffs which are causing economic chaos around the world.
“The genius who gave us classics like Sleepy Joe and Crooked Hillary, just s*** out, ‘You’re a Panican’? How about Hysterocrats? Repussicans? How about Cryontologists? Did the overseas factory you had been sourcing your nicknames from get shut down during the tariff war?” quipped Stewart.
Just days before adding Panican to his parlance, Trump posted to Truth Social Friday “ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL!” which Stewart said was the “same tagline as season 3 of Squid Game.”
Social media users also poked fun at Trump’s new phrase.
“He’s panicking,” one X user tweeted alongside a screenshot of Trump’s Panican post.
Jack Kimble, a fictitious “Republican congressman” posted on X: “Oh phew. When I heard Trump created a new word PANICAN, I thought that meant we were invading Panama and Canada today.”
“Panican (n) - cross between a penguin and a pangolin, capable of causing unspeakable havoc to [the] global market,” wrote political scientist Ian Bremmer.
Others called Trump himself “Panican-in-chief” dredging up old tweets where he railed against stock market collapses under former President Joe Biden.
Should we be panicking?
The president’s latest threats come as stock markets tumbled for the third consecutive trading day.
The massive sell-off had a brief respite around 10:30 a.m. ET on Monday after CNBC and social media influencers falsely reported that National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Trump was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs for all countries other than China.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt immediately shot down the reports as “fake news” and the markets continued to plummet following her denial of any consideration of a pause on the import taxes, which Trump frequently and falsely claims will be paid by foreign governments rather than by importers who pass them along to consumers in the form of higher prices.
Trump also confirmed to reporters he’s “not looking at” pausing the sweeping tariffs. So, should Americans be panicking?
The chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, Sam Stovall, told AARP that data shows in every market pullback since World War II, the market regained lost ground between a month and a half and four months during corrections.
The advice remains roughly the same for workers nearing retirement age. Experts suggest that people move to more conservative investments to shield their savings from market volatility and avoid any knee-jerk reactions.
Who might join the Panican party?
Republican Texas Representative Pete Sessions told the BBC that tariffs are not in the best interests of Americans or the free world to pay that extra money.
GOP Texas Senator Ted Cruz warned the tariffs could be a “terrible outcome” for the party’s political prospects if they remain.
Billionaire Bill Ackman, who backed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, warned of an “economic nuclear winter” as business investments “grind to a halt.”
Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot who donated to Trump’s campaign in 2016, said that the 46 percent tariff placed on Vietnam was “bulls***.”
Investor Stanley Druckenmiller, a mentor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, wrote on X: “I do not support tariffs exceeding 10%.”
Even Elon Musk, Trump’s special adviser tasked with gutting the federal government through DOGE, said he hopes for a “zero-tariff situation” between the U.S. and Europe.
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