So, Who’s Getting Fired for This? Accidentally texting war plans to a journalist is clear cause for dismissal.

More precisely, the ability to produce said goods is the army. This is why the tariffs are not protectionist in the classic economic sense. Far higher stakes than who/where makes a widget and what it sells for.

Manufacturing is a war now – and the democracies are losing - Asia Times

...is that the major reason, for example, that German industrial production is down is because they've shut down their nuclear plants and have harshly restricted affordable energy in general--the "Energiewende", they call it. It's not a lack of trade restrictions at all.

I'm not against revenue tariffs, and I'm even not against the restricted use of punitive tariffs. However, this is just plain random. If I were on Trump's team, I'd be objecting strongly and heading for the exits.

Trump states that we will feel short term pain for long term gain. It will be interesting how many years the public will put up with this pain. It will not be that short term. It took 20 years to build out a global supply chain with distributed manufacturing, it will not revert back to the US in 6 months or a year. Some of these plants take 2-3 years at a minimum to build. Add onto that, there is not a lot of labor in the US geared toward t-shirt manufacturing and such. My take, come mid-terms, the ability for the American public to sustain the desire to continue to pay high prices, high inflation, high interest rates and market stagnation will be gone.

I think you will see the Dems in the majority in the house and another impeachment

As the markets are taking a nice plunge, now is the time to buy stocks at a discount. As Warren Buffet once famously said, "be greedy when others are fearful."

Seriously, if you have some excess cash on hand, it might be time to invest it in the market.

Agree that Republicans might lose mid-terms, bringing manufacturing back will take longer than most people define "short term", etc..

But the critical lack of manufacturing knowledge and capacity in the US has to be addressed. Or the US will be given an ultimatum from the CCP and will cave. That's not good for humanity, American or otherwise. Not because the US can save the world. But the US is a comparative force for good on this earth.

That's gonna cost. It has for 80 years. And will continue to.

I give a lot of credit to the (flawed) man in the arena. Many will disagree (richly, a right which the US Constitution guarantees).

The US is the second largest manufacturing output in the world. 93% of the size of China. So China can produce more T-shirts than us. There is this idea that the US doesn't manufacturer anymore or that there is this impending doom. Manufacturing is much more global than just China, and supply chains are much more complex.

Are there benefits of improving manufacturing output in the US? Sure. But are we at such a cliff that we need to essentially tax every US consumer 10% more for their products to some how drive a 5-10 year move to build more plants, and drive a recession in this country?

Or could the same outcome be achieved by significant targeted investment and incentives to drive up manufacturing. I just toured the BMW Spartanburg plant in South Carolina, when I picked up my new vehicle that was made there. It manufactures all of the BMW SUVs for the entire world. 60% of what it makes it exports.

We don't lack critical manufacturing skills. What we do lack is manufacturing skills capacity. Something that our given birth rate and unemployment rate will not allow us to fill. But something that new immigrants can fill.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/global-manufacturing-scorecard-how-the-us-compares-to-18-other-nations/

dgszweda - Thanks for the comments. Absolutely right that manufacturing is more than China and supply chains are complex. I've sourced manufactured items from over a dozen non-US countries and visited multiple factories many of those. Some factories fairly vertical, others not so much. But undoubtedly complex.

Agree also that the US still manufactures. But in several critical categories, our capacity is miniscule vis-a-vis what securing American interests requires. Ships, batteries (drones figure prominently in future conflicts), microprocessors, steel, aluminum, rare earth metals needed for magnets & guidance, etc..
In several categories, we have some capacity. But nowhere near enough. China alone exceeds or equals the rest of the entire world in manufacturing capacity in many essential categories.

That capacity will not return here when the pre-4/2/25 incentive structure encourages importing rather than domestic.

To all who care to think on this topic, let's temporarily ignore the national security risks. On strictly economic grounds, persistent trade deficits are unhealthy and unsustainable. The units of measure provide perspective:

investment to rebuild US manufacturing: years

trade deficits (shipping American wealth out of the country): decades

That is why I said targeted tariffs. Making me pay 30% higher costs for tires for my car, is not going to bring back ship building or microprocessors. Many of these items could take decades to bring back to substantial quantity. Something the American people will not let the tariffs continue for. Rare earth metals is not a manufacturing element. In fact, this is where investment would come into play to get us off of legacy storage technologies that require rare earth elements. It took China over 30 years to build up manufacturing capabilities to the level they are today. That was with low cost labor and in way too many instances forced labor, child labor and slavery. They had a laser focus and used significant investments and government subsidies. Do we really think across the board tariffs are going to accomplish this in the next 3.5 years of Trump's term? If not, why are we subjecting the US consumer with 10% to 50% additional taxes on practically all of our products? The plan is ludicrous. Either the average household is going to pay $3,500 to $5,000 in additional taxes to the Federal government, or consumer spending will shrink. After the end of 3.5 years with some shift in manufacturing, but probably minimal because of the time it takes, a new government will be brought in, who will take away the tariffs. After 3 years, it will be a pretty easy platform to say that you will make all products in the US 10% to 50% cheaper on the first day in office. Pretty easy voting for people.

Econ 101 - Trade deficits are not inherently bad. There is significant nuance and numerous conditions that dictate the impact of specific trade deficits.

Econ 102 - Trade deficits do not automatically mean wealth is being shipped out of the country.

Investment to rebuild US manufacturing - decades. Yes you can build an auto plant in 3-5 years. To develop chip fabrication and build to any scale? Decades. To build ship manufacturing? Decades. Ship manufacturing took decades to decline, it doesn't just come back overnight.

Trade deficit with a country like China - months if not weeks. Pass a law to prohibit the importation of any product manufactured in China and you will see the trade deficit shift within a few weeks after passage. Pass a tariff of 200% and see it shift a bit slower.