Subject: Re: I must need to drink more Kool-aid
Which would be why I'm not talking about clothes or mops: I've specifically mentioned semiconductors, ships, large engineering infrastructure and construction equipment. There's more beyond that, but you get the idea.
But then you don't pursue a policy that fails to distinguish - at all - between clothes or mops and the other things. These aren't product-specific tariffs, for the most part. They are country specific tariffs based solely and entirely on the amount of the trade deficit, not any particular composition of the trade deficit by strategic or non-strategic imports. What he's doing is just indiscriminately trying to reduce trade deficits, not on-shoring critical manufacturing items.
There's nothing wrong with on-shoring critical manufacturing items.
That's not what he's doing. Oh, sure - one of the effects of what he's doing may be to encourage on-shoring of manufacturing everything, which will include some critical items. But again, what he's doing is trying to reduce every bi-lateral trade deficit with every country. Which is an absolutely foolhardy thing to try to do.