Tariffs will only end up making ordinary Americans poorer. They’re essentially a tax on Americans, plain and simple. The result is that you'll end up paying more for goods.
The real issue isn't with foreign countries; it's with the U.S.'s inability to produce these goods at a competitive price. The only way to fix this, we would need three things:
1) New factories, millions of them, to produce the items that Americans currently buy from other countries.
2) A reduction in the cost of labor and raw materials to ensure that finished products are priced similarly to what other countries pay to make the same goods.
3) Skilled laborers, which we lack, especially after Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
Now, consider a corporation deciding to build a new factory and invest in new supply chains, hire more workers, and so on. The corporation has to decide if making that decision is worth it. These corporations are thinking long-term because they know that, in four years, a new president could come in and may eliminate the tariffs altogether.
