There is simple logic in it. Punish everyone, and then let them come to you asking for exemptions. Then he can demand things in exchange. After that it's "Pray I don't alter the deal any further."
UK already asked for an exemption and he said they should buy chlorinated chicken first. If every country responds in the same way and gives in he's making bank. If they respond with a boycott on anything American, especially digital services, things get bad.
It's also the guy saying next year will be the year of the semi, roadster, colony on Mars, robotaxi and what not. Truth has a restraining order against Musk because of repeated violations.
And that was the whole point of the tariffs.
Then they'll still think it was a good idea, it just went wrong in the execution.
Yeah, that's just Trump. He likes to be vengeful and a bully, using tariffs like a stick to beat others info submission. But he doesn't seem to know when enough is enough.
Project 2025 is split on the issue of foreign trade.[109] Mandate author Peter Navarro advocates what he calls a fair trade policy of reciprocal, higher tariffs on the European Union, China, and India, to achieve a balance of trade, though not all U.S. levies are lower than those of its major trading partners.[126] On the other hand, Mandate author Kent Lassman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute promotes a free trade policy of lowering or eliminating tariffs to cut costs for consumers, and calls for more free trade agreements.[126] He argues that Trump's and Biden's tariffs have undermined not just the American economy, but also the nation's international alliances.[117]
The first guy won apparently.
At the end of the day, there is an arrogance in these tariffs that says the world needs American goods and services more than America needs the world’s goods and that we will cave before America.
That's not even the case. USA is the biggest importer, helped along by having the world's reserve currency. Trump's idea is to force everybody to quickly build factories in America, and manufacturing was part of the golden age, so he brings wealth back to the States. That's why he keeps yammering on about the trade deficit.
I takes a few years to build a factory, from idea to first product. Many will figure it's easier to wait for a new president instead of actually committing billions to build out production, find workers and set up a local supply chain.
Trump will be remembered as the spark that caused the old world order to blow up, causing a lot of changes in the way things are done. China becomes the manufacturer of clean energy and uses their new status as having the reserve currency to stamp out all fossil fuels.
The amount of mixed signals coming from this administration is insane.
No, seems pretty straightforward. It's simply "we'll tariff-whip you into submission and make you buy our shit"
Musk is the guy that says he wants to burn society to the ground and rebuild it better. Then he's shocked people are focusing on and strongly disliking the burning part. Also people have seen the cyber truck and the yearly promises to have self driving next year for sure and don't trust his rebuilding abilities.
He's still a hero in his own mind, thinking "Can't people see I'm trying to improve society? Sure, several million people might lose everything and maybe die, but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. It's for the greater good!" Now he's shocked the few million people scheduled for demolition strongly disagree.
Rumour goes the idea is to force others to peg their currency to the dollar in fixed exchange rates so they can stay the reserve currency and still re-industrialize. Tariffs are used to force others into that arrangement. With how trustworthy USA has been the last few months, countries are not going to be enthousiast about this.