Sane-washing like this is already dangerous even before you figure in that a surprising amount of it seems to be predicated on starting a war with China in the near future.

I guess that's the only plausible scenario they can think of that somewhat eclipses this self-inflicted disaster and makes it seem like a mere bump in the road by rhetorical comparison.

Everyone seems to be saying it's "tough medicine" and will help bring industry back to the USA, but what if the reverse is true?

The tariffs hit American companies hardest - it is companies in the USA actually paying the tariffs, and it's paid on every step of importing in the supply chain.

People are acting like Ford and GM will bring back the factories and make America great again, but it's just as likely that the other countries lower their trade barriers and while Ford is stuck dealing with the hit from tariffs, BYD etc. just take all of their market share internationally - as they aren't affected.

This might actually accelerate the decline of US industry, as manufacturers cannot move their entire supply chain to the US overnight (and wouldn't keep the same profit margins even if it were possible), meanwhile they become much less competitive in foreign markets. E.g. when OpenAI is stuck paying tariffs on GPUs, then DeepSeek will be even more competitive. Same for Boeing vs. AirBus and COMAC.

> Third, there are a lot of other things the Trump administration could be doing, particularly in terms of relieving regulation, ensuring equal opportunity throughout the economy, etc. It seems like a missed opportunity to be burning political capital on deficit reduction and trade rebalancing when there are major pro-growth opportunities still available. This seems particularly pertinent given the rise of AI, which has very high variance in terms of potential outcomes.

I agree with this completely, I'm surprised Trump didn't couple it with a bonfire of NIMBY regulation to help jump-start domestic growth that way too.

>This meant there was inelastic demand for U.S. treasuries, which basically made it impossible for the U.S. to not run a deficit, either in terms of trade or the federal budget.

Ease of borrowing does not force a government to run a deficit, which is entirely a political choice.

If fixing trade was the goal of these tariffs, Trump had other, better options. He did not listen to policy advisors who have spent a long time writing about how to prepare the US for a war with China and rebalancing global trade. This is why it’s been a PR disaster, not because it was preemptive decisive action.