What am I supposed to do? Complain because the initially-stupid policy forces the hand of the affected country to try and balance their losses? No. It's not inconsistent at all. You don't support a stupid decision, but if it's implemented and you wanted it, then you should suffer the consequences. Yes, we're all affected to some extent, but those who explicitly supported it are affected the most until we find some common sense again.
Trump justifies his tariffs using the trade deficit; thus one could say that the tariffs he imposed were an attempt to try and balance America's "losses" on trade.
Again, this is nonsense to think that punitive tariffs actually punish the target country. Just like Trump's tariffs might benefit a few steel workers at the expense of most American consumers (and producers that rely on steel, for that matter), these punitive tariffs will benefit a few Mexican hog farmers at the expense of most Mexican consumers. I do not think Mexican consumers were the ones who explicitly supported Trump's tariffs.
Which is precisely why unilaterally imposing random tariffs is an incredibly bad decision. Everybody is forced into losing positions and has to respond from there.
No argument here.
