Have you considered the possibility that the tariffs wasn’t actually solely about imports but also aims to raise massive tax revenues?
While everyone can tell trying to use tariffs to reduce imports where there is no viable domestic suppliers is never going to work, it does raise a massive amount of revenue for the government and reduced the need for more wonton money printing. You just use trade as the dog whistle to get the turkey’s to vote for Christmas dinner.
I know it’s actually incredible to accuse Trump of having a plan, but not everyone around him and advising him are brain dead idiots, so I think it is actually interestingly plausible that once in a while, Trump might actually be able to sneak a smart play past everyone because no one would be expecting it.