This is a good explanation of Trumps tariffs. The tariffs restore short term viability to the USD reserve currency status by improving US govt revenue and reducing the volume of imports. It comes at the cost of a radical increase in cost of consumption for US consumers- the least well off will be hit hardest- but it will also spur more domestic production even though that production will be performed at a higher cost than other competing nations could have provided. The underlying decline of US productive capacity competitiveness is unlikely to be solved but strategically, dependence on foreign supply chains will be reduced. The tariffs could be the beginning of a process where the US steps back from and avoids default and loss of its privileged status, but that remains to be seen- it could conversely open the way for China to draw in closer the rest of the world to its demonstrably more productive economy. China has made no secret of its ambition to build and operate alternative trade payments protocols to the USD/SWIFT hegemony. It already provisions these shadow banking trade payments rails to N.Kores, Iran and Russia- and with mBridge digital payments protocol appearing ready to expand its scope and with Saudi Arabia joining both mBridge and BRICS, the end of the USD 'petrodollar' hegemony could be imminent. Trump is fighting a rearguard defensive strategy to minimise losses and perhaps retain US wealth, empire and hegemony- will it succeed or fail? Who knows? At the very least it puts the issues that have long required attention on the table and forces us to confront them- as much as many would prefer to remain in the delusional US exceptionalists paradigm.