Biden administration is announcing plans to slap new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment.
Climate change and inflation are both important, so we're going to make it as expensive as possible to switch away from fossil fuels.
He's betting he won't lose votes on the left because the left will vote against Trump. He's playing chicken with the end of civilization, and we're all in the car with him.
He could potentially win Michigan based on this, so you’re probably right in that they did some polls and found this to be a domestically “good” move.
The auto industry is huge in Detroit. If Biden didn’t do this, I could imagine a situation where these budget-friendly Chinese vehicles actually scare the Big Three Auto Companies and the UAW into backing Trump, which would be a disaster.
I believe a defense for the tariffs is that the Chinese government is heavily subsidizing them, but I do not know how true that is.
The Chinese aren't adhering to any environmental precautions in their manufacturing, so one could argue that preventing the proliferation of cheap Chinese solar might actually help the environment.