I’ve been thinking a lot about tariffs lately, specifically the way the current administration rolled them out and announced them—and while I still believe they’re useful, and critical to push industries toward robotics, automation, and self-sufficiency, the key detail is how the tariffs were rolled out and what they now mean.

In all of my posts, and some of my personal investments, I always imagined and was positioned for a more strategic, staged approach—something methodical and well-timed.

Here’s what I thought would happen:

First, you lay the foundation. That means initiating pro-business policies: tax cuts, incentives, and credits designed to kickstart domestic manufacturing. You give industry a reason to return home. You let the machinery warm up.

I was fully prepared for more tax cut announcements and incentives to hit the newswire immediately.

Then—after a year of momentum, once you’ve got activity humming—you introduce tariffs. And when they come, businesses aren’t blindsided. They’ve already been building. They’ve already started hiring. They’ve already been given the tools to compete. The base is stronger. The transition is smoother.

But instead, what happened?

We got tariffs upfront. No major tax cuts, yet. No serious incentives, yet. Just tariff news globally and lots of headlines.

You could argue we’re front-loading all the pain and betting that good things will come later. But in my view, it looks like a classic “overconfidence trap.” Leaders wanted to be heroes, move fast, and show strength—so they skipped the setup and went straight to the hard part.

Now we’re left doing damage control.

If I were designing the strategy, here’s what my playbook would look like:

• Start with global negotiations. Open trade talks with every major economy. Start announcing win-win trade deals, 0% tariffs, and new free-trade zones where it makes sense.

• Push tax cuts and incentives—hard. Slash capital gains taxes specifically for industrial and steel companies. Remove every obstacle to domestic investment.

Do that for six months, and you’d start to see momentum. With the right fuel in the system, everything could be booming—and the tariffs, if and when they come, would feel like a catalyst, not a shock.

I am really excited for the next wave of robotics and automation, coupled with AI. That is the future.

There’s still time to fix this.

I do believe it will happen soon.