Thom Hogan, at his website, goes through the problems with cargo shipping with 145% tariff sitting on it:

The problem starts with cargo ships. Because no one wants to pay 145% tariffs unless they absolutely have to, a lot of cargo originally destined for the US will never leave an Asian port. Three weeks later, the US West Coast ports suddenly are operating at much lower levels (current Long Beach estimates are for a 25% year-to-year decline in May). This leads to temporary employment cuts at the ports, but also leads to less need for further domestic shipping (i.e. trucking and rail). Which leads to more temporary employment cuts. Meanwhile, no new product shows up at retailers, leading to eventual product shortages and further temporary employment cuts.

Employment cuts lead to less discretionary income and less spending in the overall economy, which starts a slow downward spiral where future orders are lowered, thus future cargo ships don’t get loaded in SE Asia for the US, and on and on.

June is going to be the start of a very difficult time!

His focus (no pun intended) is photography gear, but it’s true of everything coming over on a boat from China. Some products will be available, but at astronomical prices and some products just won’t be on shelves.

Here’s what’s going to happen… your local dealer in just about anything is going to go out of business unless something changes fast. The big box stores will still be around, but they will significantly less on the shelves and the prices will be through the roof.

I wish I could say what to stock up on, but the thing is nearly everything most people buy comes from China, Mexico, or Canada in some form or another. It’s going to be bad.

No one wins a trade war. In fact, trade wars are monumentally stupid. Of course, we have a monumentally stupid person in charge.