In 2009, Obama decided the government had to save the auto industry. There was no playbook for it, and he received a lot of criticism for what was an unprecedented peacetime interference with the market. He did it because the industry was extremely important in and of itself, and because the cascading effects of losing millions of jobs would have taken the Great Recession to a completely different level. Against the odds, it worked. It was the signature accomplishment, along with the approval of Obamacare, of his tenure in office.
Trump’s tariffs are exactly the opposite. For no good reason, they are going to wreck the auto industry. And then what? Will he change his mind and spin it as a victory when things go wrong, or will he double down? TBD.