That's what they say but we literally went through this whole mess not even two months ago with Canada and Mexico. He's already showed he's insane and cannot be negotiated with.

> The fact that what they’ve been saying all along

They weren't saying that all along. They were saying that tariffs are a tool that will be used to reindustrialize the USA.

The President's advisors are saying multiple contradictory things. You're right that they're saying that the reciprocal tariffs are a negotiating ploy, which implies that they'll negotiate a much lower rate. But at the same time they're also saying that they're going to use the tariffs to raise enough revenue to replace income taxes as the main way of funding the government, which implies that the tariffs will stay high. Then they're also saying that the tariffs will be used to support domestic manufacturing, which implies that the tariffs will stay high and predictable.

It doesn't make sense that the tariff policy can be both leverage in a negotiation with the ultimate goal eliminating trade barriers and also so high and predictable that they can raise something the 10-20% of GDP.

The logical conclusion is that there is no plan here - we're living in a world like England under Henry VIII, where everything is done based on the whim of the king, and the advisors try to justify it ex post facto.