I'm not sue what I am dealing with?

Of course they are central planning. They are trying to price out goods X in favor of goods Y. That's quite literally centralized planning. 

China isn't dumping anything. That's not how it works. I need a product, I find suppliers of a product for the best value/price ratio. If that's in the US, great Canada, fantastic. China, fine.

The government collected 200B in new tariffs taxes last year. That's 200 billion in new taxes on the importers of goods. That's 200B that was sucked from the pockets of the people.

Much of this was paid by the consumers of the imports, not all, but much. 

This isn't a media line, it's a fact.  I bought electronics from Alibaba, I paid more this year than last for my esp32 devices.  Devices which are not made here, fyi.

The importers are also employing people, and many like Amazon resellers are citizens and Mom and pop businesses as well.

I'm fine with just tariffs, if we have no income tax. But that's not a thing. 

But they also don't help the country in any way. There is zero evidence tariffs help a country.

Trade deficits are meaningless, but I do think it's important to showcase the fact that the trade deficit didn't even shrink last year despite gold exports being through the roof.

Trumps tantrums have hurt Americans, trade, and helped China grow their exports. How again is that a good thing?

The ONLY way to fix manufacturing(if that's even a goal, which I don't think it should be) is to stop deficit spending, inflating the dollar, and forcing the world to use dollars.