While I agree with the basic gist of some things Trump wants to do, they're absolute effing morons when it comes to doing it in a way to actually achieve the goal that doesn't leave a path of destruction.
I think the problems are so big, that there's no way to turn it around in a short-ish period of time without some pain. The tariffs that other countries have on the US over the past years and decades are often bigger than what the US tariffs. How many Canadians really have a good understanding of all the tariffs and trade barriers we've had on the US? - milk and dairy is one example. Until Trump the US had just accepted it but now they are trying to level the playing field. Before anyone complains about US tariffs they should have a good understanding of how much other countries tariff the US. Also, it is hard to quickly undo decades of manufacturing and jobs moving to China. It is a lot of disruption now but for Americans it is probably the right thing to do overall for the future - for their kids and grandkids. For Canada, the politicians have let Canada become weak through dependence on the US, I even heard Melanie Joly admit that today in an interview, so they need to create the economic conditions and regulations that will allow Canada to diversify it's trade and become more resilient. The Liberals and their voters thought focusing on DEI and climate and virtue signaling would make Canada strong - apparently it doesn't work that way. With DOGE cutting US government spending, and tariffs and other measures bringing in more US revenues, their hope is to balance the budget and concentrate spending on maintaining US social, medical, and retirement obligations to those who are entitled to it. They also want to be able to eliminate income taxes on anyone earning $150,000 or less, which helps offset the higher costs of goods affected by tariffs. It seems that most of the people that Trump has appointed were carefully head hunted from lists of top performers in their fields, and are more motivated by trying to do what's best for their country instead of grift and status and making more money from it. There is a good podcast called the "All In" podcast and they recently did an interview with Howard Lutnick (US Commerce Secretary in the Trump administration) that explains a lot about what they are trying to do and how they got here, definitely worth a listen.
I have no idea whether they will be successful or not, but I can understand what the US is trying to do. And with a 4 year term, time is of the essence. With Trump being a capitalist and business man, I also don't think he will allow a long, deep recession or a long period of economic pain. If it's not working they will pivot and make changes along the way imo. If they weren't doing anything to correct all the problems that have built up over decades, sure things would chug along fine for now but it would be just kicking the can down the road until a disaster finally unfolds, and then it's too late. This really should have been started long ago, for example in 2008 when we had the big financial crisis, they just bailed out the banks because it was easy, instead of letting more of them fail, taking the pain, and resetting things so that by today we would have already been through it and better off.