These tariffs imposed by Trump didn't have much to do with economic concerns. In fact, they're willing to pay USA businesses that were affected by tariffs (
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-trade-wa ... ut-1040309) to compensate for their losses. What this means is that the US government thinks this policy is worth losing some money if it hurts China more. Asymmetrical damages.
It's not just the economy, it's also about the fact that China is stealing intellectual property from US businesses. They are copying products made in China by US corporations and they are stealing trade secrets from start-ups in which the Chinese government has invested, indirectly, via investment funds.
You need to go deeper to understand why this is happening.
I think Trump is doing the right thing here, but with a caveat. He shouldn't have extended this policy to other trading partners, like Canada, the EU, etc. In the end, the US actually will not be affected that much, because the trade-to-GDP ratio in the US is like 13.4% (
http://stat.wto.org/CountryProfile/WSDB ... ountry=US&). Which means the US is less dependent on trade than other countries (China's trade-to-GDP ratio stands at about 19.1%, so its revenue is a lot more dependent on trading than USA's revenue).
But, again, since economic concerns were not uppermost in making such a decision, these are considered acceptable costs for bigger and more strategic, long-term goals.