What is a tariff and who actually pays the tariff?

Exactly. Trump and Republicans keep talking about how we need to reduce taxes on small businesses and companies, and then they turn around and tax those very same entities through tariffs. Go figure. Trump is essentially using Americans as hostages, threatening to hurt his own citizens if China doesn't agree to his terms.Tariffs only really work when they are laser focused and preemptive. For example, if the Chinese start producing massive amounts of soy beans and are looking to flood the US market then it makes sense to put tariffs on Chinese soy beans to protect American farmers. However, if American companies already depend on cheap goods from China to manufacture their own goods and there are no other affordable domestic alternatives, then tariffs are a huge problem.

I think someone finally filled him in, and it finally registered in his brain. However, it is quite scary to have seen Trump tweet out how his tariffs are forcing China to pay money to the US Treasury. It makes you wonder if he had no idea how tariffs worked when he initially pushed for them. Since then, he has tweeted out that he understands it is American importers that pay the tariffs, so at least he knows now.

Tariffs are actually anti-competitive, but I agree on his single minded focus of what benefits him and his family. Sarcasm?