Imposition of tariffs by one country on another can be mean and hurtful.
Ever since taking over the Oval Office for the second time, US President Donald Trump has tried to weaponise trade and tariffs as a way to make America great again, albeit at the expense of every other nation (and even his own American markets). Trump has arbitrarily used the threat of tariffs even against countries that believed that they were allies of the US.
Trump has, however, shied away from hurting geopolitical giants like Russia, and has hastily put off the tariff imposition on China by many months after making a series of public threats.
Till a court restored his emergency powers and shot down an earlier judgment of a federal court that took away his powers to impose tariffs on nations. Only token ones on auto manufacturers remained.
Trump had also claimed that his threats had performed another useful task—they were used to usher peace between two warring neighbours. It is a different matter that his electoral promise to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours bombed.