Bottom line: Tariffs are just another of Trump's many cons --- with very high stakes and potential for an adverse outcome.

If China don't play along, there is little to gain and much to lose.

At this point I suspect that what is happening with China is what the US want to happen. "Hard decoupling" now frees the hands of the US in case of an invasion of Taiwan in terms of sanctions and other anti-Chinese actions. It's hard to run a proxy war against a country which you massively depend on for your imports...

"Decoupling" is going to be a very long process that will cause as much pain in the US (and the world) as it does in China --- if not more.

Tariffs are a massive tax increase on US consumers. Trump and right wing media have conned people into believing otherwise.

Trump voters will slowly start to realize this when tariffs hit the shelves at Walmart --- and their wallets.