There is an embedded assumption in the question that he does profit in some way from it, but based on his past behavior it’s a pretty safe guess.
Most of the reporting I have seen on this talks about the impact of the different tariffs, but not the “why” behind it (beyond parroting what Trump says, which is never true). I’m particularly interested in the tariffs on Canadian goods and energy. The justification about stopping fentanyl smuggling is an obvious lie. (It isn’t a real problem, and tariffs have nothing to do with drug smuggling. All but the mentally handicapped can figure that out for themselves.)
Edit: Thanks for the ideas. Causing shocks to the stock market and profiting from them sounds plausible. Using tariffs directly to extort business interests sounds even more likely.
BTW, I noticed that one of the commenters somehow changed their username after posting from “ComradeShark” (or something like that) to “Sharkfucker420” after I called him “Comrade” in my reply. I suspect that Russian influence farms didn’t shut down after the election. They’re still sowing discord on even niche social media platforms like Lemmy. (Also, rookie mistake on the username, brosky.)
I think the idea is that if it’s more expensive to buy things from other countries, then we will buy more American goods, which will help American business owners, and increased demand will create more American factories and jobs.
Of course, if we can’t afford American products now, we’re just losing the only option we can afford, so instead of buying more American stuff, we just buy less of everything. Those companies won’t start building US factories without a increase in sales, so they’ll just start cutting corners, and firing staff to reduce their costs.
That crowd runs on “common sense” which means, if it sounds good without thinking about any of the details, then there’s no reason to stop it.
Presuming that the effect is as you say–that it could encourage domestic production, the real issue is how quickly it can take a supply chain to spin up. Remember that it really did take about 2 years for things to start up fully after lockdown, and that was when factories and such were already in existence. To do that here would easily take a decade presuming that there was sufficient investment.
You’re completely right. I’m just telling you the pitch, I’m not telling you to buy it.
Interesting thought - and consistent with the way he usually fails to consider the consequences of his actions (unless they apply directly to his interests).