Tariffs are taxes, but they put the burden of taxation on foreign corporations and on US companies who outsource rather than on capital that remains in the US. If high tariffs could be used as an offset to reduce/eliminate income or corporate taxes, that would solve many problems.
As to the other issues, I agree that Trump has done a lot of about-faces on more issues than you can count, which is why I don't really trust him. As I've said before, I'm undecided on Trump vs. Cruz, neither are perfect or completely trustworthy, but I'll vote for whoever gets the most delegates by Super-Tuesday and the best shot at stopping Rubio or whatever other establishment candidate is at the top of the pack. I still trust Trump to do the right thing more than I trust Rubio or Jeb.
Maybe. But the greatest burdens of protectionism are the costs they place on consumers.
If you want to pay the costs of protectionism, feel free. Do so voluntarily, by buying over-priced, domestically made items. I couldn't care less what you do with your money.
But nobody can give you the moral authority to impose such costs on me. Period. Stop. End of story.
Tariffs are taxes. The higher they are, the more damage they cause. Some people think we should put high tariffs on China. But China would then retaliate and put higher tariffs on products we sell to them including I-phones and many other things. Then we have a full scale trade war in which no one wins. Such misguided policies lead to the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s.
I know it is an instinctive reflex to propose higher tariffs on a nation (such as a China) which often engages in manipulative trade and economic policies. But just because a certain country engages in bad economic policies, that does not mean that we should follow suite. If the United States would dramatically lower (ideally abolish) its corporate income tax rates (among the highest in the world) we would see corporations returning the US, return trillions of dollars back to the US, reinvest here and create jobs here. Regardless of what China or Mexico do. Policy makers here in the US should be focused on making our country an attractive place for investment. The rest will take care of itself. No need to impose or threaten higher tariffs or other types of retaliatory policies.