There are argument for protectionism, just not for a highly developed country such as USA.

But I'm not going over them for a single reason. This act will fail "bigly". China is the 3rd largest export market for USA. It imports a lot of grain and cars and can retaliate on politically sensitive goods.

Midterms are coming and China may use it to restrict tourism to Florida, put tarifs on soybeans from midwest, cars from Michigan. Companies from those states will likely suffer more in short term than benefit from the protectionism - it takes a while to build up capacity and conquer markerts. Meanwhile people will put the blame on Republicans as companies start the lay offs.