I don't know if the criticism was of the notion of tariffs. Instead it was of the bone headed implementation by the Trump administration, where tariffs were not well thought out(we tariffed islands of penguins, but specifically exempted Russia and Belarus), and were not coupled with industrial and fiscal policy to encourage domestic manufacturing to catch up.

There are items which the US cannot produce domestically where imports are unavoidable. Think coffee, for example. Someone smarter than I needs to figure out how to manage such trade deficits and surplus in this context. But the US can easily produce clean energy and mobility domestically at scale [1] (solar, wind, batteries, electric vehicles etc), it simply chooses not to. China builds lights out, automated robotic manufacturing, the US should too, considering population decline (leading to persistent labor shortages) [2] long into the future.

Manufacturing in the US has increased due to tariffs, but not manufacturing jobs [3] [4] [5]. Unionize all jobs, that's the point and how to get to living wages and better working conditions, because while some jobs can be outsourced, most on US soil cannot be.

[1] Ember Energy: China Cleantech Exports Data Explorer - https://ember-energy.org/data/china-cleantech-exports-data-e... (updated monthly)

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47680794 (citations)

[3] US manufacturing jobs fall at fastest rate since the pandemic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48647324 - June 2026 (2 comments)

[4] The manufacturing sector is growing, but isn't adding jobs - https://www.marketplace.org/story/2026/06/01/the-manufacturi... - June 1st, 2026

> “(They’re saying) we’re not being allowed to backfill people that are leaving, and it’s getting really, really hard for those remaining,” she said.

> The uptick in manufacturing is at least good for workers’ paychecks, but not so great for those looking to get hired, said labor economist Alí Bustamante at the University of New Orleans.

> “We’re seeing a jobless manufacturing rebound,” Bustamante said. “A lot of firms, they’re investing more in machines, more in overtime, expanding shifts. And we are probably going to see that in higher productivity per worker.”

> Remember, Trump’s tariffs were supposed to give domestic producers a competitive edge — leading to reshoring and more manufacturing jobs. Bustamante said that hasn’t happened.

> “The first year and a half of these tariffs during the second Trump administration, we can say pretty unequivocally there hasn’t been an employment rebound in manufacturing,” he said.

[5] A check-in on manufacturing jobs, one year since Trump's tariffs - https://www.marketplace.org/story/2026/04/01/how-trumps-tari... - April 1st, 2026

(if you are beholden to the benevolence of companies to improve worker wages or conditions, you are going to be very sad; they will maximize for profits and productivity, whenever possible)