Read the public statements of people he chose to work with him in his previous administration. A horrifying proportion make very damning comments on his ability and suitability to be president.
Don't forget that Trump has declared bankruptcy 6 (six) times. That's not the hallmark of a good businessman. Once might be unfortunate, two careless, but six are...
I've seen (but not personally checked) credible calculations to the effect that if Trump had merely invested his enormous inheritance in the stock market, then he would be richer than he is today. That implies his business empire has generated negative personal wealth! Now he is doing that in a wider context.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. He has, apparently, had a bee in his bonnet about tariffs for decades, and has now enacted his dreams. Note previous paragraph.
Prediction: tariffs will cause inflation inside the US, and Trump will blame the Fed for not lowering interest rates.
Sticking to just tariffs, to attempt to keep this thread, within bounds.
The concept of applying tariffs, just as many other countries do, including the UK. Can be fine.
But in this case, it seems to be very badly implemented.
For simplification, let's remove China/Russia from this equation, as it en couches into restraining China and treatment of wars (Russia), which is a much more complicated ball game. Probably best left out of this thread.
So as regards the other countries.
I think it should have been handled in a much friendlier way.
Various things should have been left out of the tariffs, for humanitarian reasons. Such as non-luxury Food, Clothing, Medicines, Books, and other similar category items.
The percentage amounts, should be considerably less. Such as 2%.
Rather friendly to the US and/or with lucrative trade deals for both parties, should either be lower 1% or even free-trade (0%).
Stuff needed by existing or future, US based businesses, shouldn't be paying much or any tariffs. Since you want to build up your own businesses, and if they can buy stuff tariff free, they can then sell more stuff world-wide, as they can sell at better prices, to the world-market.
The money (tax) raised, should be perhaps better used, by pumping it back into your own businesses, in various ways. To encourage balance of payment, improvements.
Things should be announced and decided, well in advance. So everyone has time to plan for, adjust and get things ready. Before the tariffs, kick-in. E.g. 9 months advanced notice.
If the tax (tariff) raised, for a particular shipment, is less than some threshold amount, e.g. $100. Then it should be tariff free. To avoid adding unnecessary complications, red-tape, administration, hassle, difficulties etc to transactions.
If the US doesn't currently produce the item(s), at even vaguely the same prices and/or is NOT interested in producing such things or can't produce such things (e.g. raw materials unavailable in the US or needs certain climates to produce the fruit/vegetables, unavailable in the US, etc). Then it should be tariff free.
These set of rules (I'm NOT an economist, don't have access to the right information and haven't spent time to research a proper set of rules), should be created by a talented team of economists and other suitable people. Who quietly research and plan, the exact details. Ready for the administration and president to finalize.
In summary. Tariffs can be ok (I suspect), but need to be very carefully and highly professionally created and implemented. Otherwise, you can end up with a mess, and make things (in all sorts of ways), worse than they were, before the tariffs.
The US stock markets, apparently collapsing in a dramatic way, after the tariffs were announced. Was a clear sign that things were NOT right.
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