Trump mentioned the $36T US government debt mountain in his announcement and so it seems fair to say that reducing USAs chronic trade deficits and therefore accumulation of debt is a major factor and intention. The US has been living beyond its means for decades and at least Trump appears to acknowledge this. Currently US debt servicing is nearly $1T/year. The tariffs income could make a significant dent in this debt servicing. If US debt servicing cost is not reduced then the pretense of US financial system viability is likely to unravel very soon. By 2030 debt servicing and core government expenditure would be consuming all of government revenue- ie an embedded deficit and assured eventual if not imminent insolvency. However if Trump also enacts tax cuts they are likely to benefit the wealthy most and do not expect the wealthy to pass on those tax cuts to US consumers- there is no reason they would. So consumers will be the big losers- anyone who spends most of their income which is generally the lowest and middle income earners- the wealthy do not spend most of their income- and so they do not pay proportionately as much in the increased cost of consumer goods. It is a least well of Americans who will be hit hardest by the tariffs. The rest of the world will accelerate its growing trade dependence upon China as China will become even more important as a buyer of commodities and a supplier of manufactured goods. US consumers will face a 20-40% inflation bump on imported goods. The FED might say it will look over this 'temporary' inflation bump but it is not temporary- it is permanent - US consumers and businesses will face ~20-40% higher costs on imported goods than the rest of the world. Great way to handicap your entire economy in one more massively deranged Trumpian gesture. The only way these tariffs can be seen as rational is if you are expecting war in the near future and need to rebuild your domestic supply chains despite their inherent structural inefficiency.