Just like the average person doesn't understand income tax (i.e. they think "tax breaks" means they will pay less in taxes even when the tax breaks don't significantly affect their income brackets because they think X% on income exceeding $Y means if you make more than $Y all your income will be taxed at that rate), the average person doesn't understand tariffs (i.e. that it's a kind of tax paid to your own government by the domestic corporation or individual importing the tariffed goods, not something the foreign exporter pays, and that it can compound for goods that need to move multiple times across borders during the manufacturing process) and the average person doesn't understand that "trade deficit" is completely meaningless when it comes to determining who's taking advantage of whom (i.e. it's not about the difference in relative value of the goods exchanged, it's about which side of the exchange uses more currency than goods and services for the exchange; e.g. Hong Kong has a trade deficit to the US because it imports American goods and services but the US imports very little from Hong Kong - but the US has a major trade deficit to Mexico because it imports a lot of goods from Mexico, presumably especially from manufacturing outsourced to Mexico?).
This isn't a uniquely American phenomenon but Republicans have spent decades fermenting "post-factual" propaganda and a culture of deliberate ignorance to an extent that is difficult to compare. In Germany we've only really seen anything of this level during COVID (this was when Germany became the country with the largest QAnon movement outside the US) although of course media like the Springer news publishing outlets have also been pushing deliberate misinformation for half a century - it just didn't really connect to a political movement until relatively recently. Prior to the Ukraine invention and the sanctions on Russia, a lot of this in Europe also seems to have had close ties to Russia - either through direct financial support or through Russian "alternative news" channels like Sputnik and RT.
It's also worth remembering that not all Americans support Trump's policies and most don't support all of them. Most that do express unconditional support don't want to talk about the policies they don't like or outright deny them. I've seen Trump supporters in the same thread argue that there won't be a recession, and that a recession is good and necessary actually - but never with each other, always only attacking their shared outside enemy. It's not really about the politics for them, it's about allegiance and loyalty. But these are not the majority of people who voted for him - they're just the most dedicated ones.
This isn't a uniquely American phenomenon but Republicans have spent decades fermenting "post-factual" propaganda and a culture of deliberate ignorance to an extent that is difficult to compare. In Germany we've only really seen anything of this level during COVID (this was when Germany became the country with the largest QAnon movement outside the US) although of course media like the Springer news publishing outlets have also been pushing deliberate misinformation for half a century - it just didn't really connect to a political movement until relatively recently. Prior to the Ukraine invention and the sanctions on Russia, a lot of this in Europe also seems to have had close ties to Russia - either through direct financial support or through Russian "alternative news" channels like Sputnik and RT.
It's also worth remembering that not all Americans support Trump's policies and most don't support all of them. Most that do express unconditional support don't want to talk about the policies they don't like or outright deny them. I've seen Trump supporters in the same thread argue that there won't be a recession, and that a recession is good and necessary actually - but never with each other, always only attacking their shared outside enemy. It's not really about the politics for them, it's about allegiance and loyalty. But these are not the majority of people who voted for him - they're just the most dedicated ones.