I can appreciate that Trump needs to be "seen" to be doing things in his first 100 days- I get that. Is it wishful thinking that this will settle down in say 6 months? Placing the markets in turmoil with the aluminium tariffs seems a daft move and medium-term trust will be eroded -tit/tat tariffs from other countries on US exports etc leading to stagnation - no winners and a lot of losses.
It suits Trump's base support and popularity to announce all of this but when Americans start hurting in a few months time it's not going to be pleasant - if you ramp up production basing the market on the new tariffs what happens when they're negotiated downwards even one year later? US Companies will fold in debt and job losses - disruption may be "acceptable" where progress is achieved but this is simple protectionism that is anything but stable.
Also, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Trump tried to withdraw the USA from the WTO, followed by NATO sometime during this year.
It suits Trump's base support and popularity to announce all of this but when Americans start hurting in a few months time it's not going to be pleasant - if you ramp up production basing the market on the new tariffs what happens when they're negotiated downwards even one year later? US Companies will fold in debt and job losses - disruption may be "acceptable" where progress is achieved but this is simple protectionism that is anything but stable.
Also, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Trump tried to withdraw the USA from the WTO, followed by NATO sometime during this year.