oddhack wrote: "If tariffs were being spent to assist said displaced / under / un-employed workers that would be a reasonable policy angle to debate. But the actual tariffs are going to be spent to partially offset tax cuts for the top quintile while almost everyone else gets charged MORE taxes, and support for said workers is being undercut by a multitude of staffing, program, and upcoming budget cuts."

During the first Trump presidency the US imposed tariffs, and foreign countries retaliated with tariffs on stuff including our agricultural exports. US farmers took it on the nose, and then the Trump administration funneled massive amounts of relief funds to them to relieve the pain. From what I read, that financial assistance to farmers who were injured by the trade war that our tariffs provoked consumed most if not all of the income from the tariffs.

Thoughtful, targeted tariffs can make sense. That's not what's going on, and there will be economic destruction with little to no net payoff to the US from what the Trump is doing.

Is it rational for companies like Ford to abandon their investments in Mexican factories and build new in the US, or is it smarter for them to wait out the Trump administration and figure the economic chaos will lead to the return of more rational policies after Trump and MAGA lose the presidency in 3 years?

It's a question with no great answer, I suppose. Ford takes a big hit no matter what they do.