From Wall Street to the White House, the dish everyone’s talking about this week is the Persian Taco. It’s what’s served when Trump chickens out in Iran.

In the early hours of Monday morning, witnessing oil prices surge, stock futures plummet and bond yields climb due to his threat to pummel Iran’s civilian power infrastructure, the president hurriedly walked it back, announcing he would put off the bombing because talks with Iran were actually going great. After the bombast and bloodshed, it was time for Taco (Trump Always Chickens Out), a move he first put on display during the tariffs crisis last year.

Bonds snapped back in instants and the price of Brent crude recoiled to below $100 a barrel from more than $112 seconds earlier. By 9.30am in New York, the S&P 500 stock index had jumped 1.5%, defying futures contracts that had earlier signalled a 1% daily decline.

But events in the hours after the president offered up his dish of Mex-Middle Eastern fusion cuisine suggest his tactic may have run its course. He can still inflict tremendous damage to the region and the world economy. Making extreme threats and walking them back will again provide Trump with the illusion of agency. But he no longer has control of events in Iran. He does not get to decide when the conflict ends. Markets are figuring out that that will likely be up to Tehran.