If I’m in a generous mood, I think I can sort of explain it, but none of it comes from Trump, he’s just not smart enough to give much of a shit. This is more the Project 2025 types.

It seems to me that Republicans have decided that a series of decisions that were made in the 90s (largely authored by big business and therefore, Republicans) that… for lack of a better term - liberalized global trade - were a mistake, and they are intent on reversing them at all costs.

Decisions like NAFTA, PNTR/WTO for China, etc. These things led to cheap goods which kept inflation low and profits high for US corporations. But they also largely wiped out domestic manufacturing and led to reliance on China for a lot of really important shit. It’s hard to understate that by 2020, China controlled 80% of rare earth supplies and 90% of global electronics manufacturing.

They want to bring us back to the way things were in the 1910s for social policy (eliminate both abortion and a woman’s right to vote) and they want us back in the 80s when it comes to like domestic trade policy and manufacturing.

The problem, of course, is a) Republicans created the problem in the first place (granted with Democrats’ help) and b) “at all costs” means “without regard to whether or not it fucks the average US citizen” which it most certainly will. So we all get to suffer yet again so that the billionaire class has its cake and eats it too.