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The analogy to diversity and equity programs is a very good one. Tariffs are basically affirmative action for American companies to compete with foreign ones. Why we would want to compete with China in industries like textile manufacturing and lithium mining is beyond me, but it's clear that deviating from the natural order of things under free trade is going to lower the total efficiency of the market, in exchange for whatever intangible value we place in having American-made goods.
If only. If this were serious industrial policy it might have a glimmer of defensibility. Targeted tariffs combined with policies to enforce export discipline might make sense if you were really into having a manufacturing export-based economy. You're still making Americans poorer for the sake of your manufacturing fetish, but you can at least argue strategic reasons for it.
What we're getting is pretty much the opposite of that. The domestic economy is being categorically fenced off from foreign competition, there will be retaliatory tariffs, and American firms are going to be stuck trying to source everything domestically or paying an exorbitant markup to suppliers. The result is going to be less competitive producers subsisting off a captive market. American companies are not going to have to compete with foreign ones domestically, and they're certainly not going to be competing internationally.
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Being self sufficient is a goal in itself. Being reliant on other countries is a risk.
It creates good jobs in the US.
More smaller mines and processing plants in different countries is less risky than having a globally centralized industry.
Standing on your feet for 7 hours a day is not a great job. Everyone I know that did it came home and immediately got drunk or high or both, every day.
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