Did a video clip authentically show "TACO" written in the sky over President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, in May 2025? No, that's not true: The footage was fake, and most likely generated using AI. The acronym "TACO", meaning "Trump Always Chickens Out" came to prominence among some critics of the president, in May 2025 amid his attempts to impose increased tariffs on global trading partners.
The clip was presented as authentic in a May 29, 2025, post on X (archived here), which contained the following caption:
HOLY. FUCKING. SKYWRITING.
Did someone seriously just smoke-write "TACO" in giant letters over Mar-a-Lago?! 💨🌮Like the heavens themselves got bored and decided to roast Trump from above.
This is legendary-level trolling. I can't breathe. 😂🔥
The video can be watched below:
HOLY. FUCKING. SKYWRITING.
-- P a u l ◉ (@SkylineReport) May 29, 2025
Did someone seriously just smoke-write "TACO" in giant letters over Mar-a-Lago?! 💨🌮
Like the heavens themselves got bored and decided to roast Trump from above.
This is legendary-level trolling. I can't breathe. 😂🔥 pic.twitter.com/HQ1wUL9mVk
In reality, the clip was fake, and bore signs of having been created using AI. "TACO" or "Trump Always Chickens Out" became a trending phrase and meme in May 2025, especially among some critics of Trump, after it was coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong to summarize what he described as the president's tendency to "back off when tariffs cause pain."
Events in and around Trump's estate at Mar-a-Lago are the subject of intense media scrutiny. If a skywriting aircraft had appeared in the sky above there, and written "TACO", the incident would undoubtedly have formed the basis of immediate and widespread news coverage.
However, a Google News search for the words "taco", "sky" and "Mar-a-Lago" yielded no results.
Furthermore, a search of Bluesky, Facebook and X yielded no other images of the supposed message, even though the video appears to show dozens of people walking around on the ground below -- any of one of whom could have recorded footage or taken a photograph of the "TACO" message.
In addition to this complete absence of corroboration, the video shows signs of having been created using AI.
Firstly, no aircraft is visible for the majority of the clip, and yet a vapor-producing object appears from nowhere, next to the letter "O" right at the very end:
(Source: X screenshot)
Secondly, the two points in the letter "C" lengthen, as if being drawn by a skywriting aircraft, and lengthen at the same time -- something that would require two aircraft to be active at the same time, and yet none is visible.
