Tariffs…

An Aussie here. When Trump first announced his tariffs a whole lot of people responded by saying they were an ineffective and fundamentally stupid move that were going to impact US consumers more than the countries he was initially targeting. And hence were typical dumb orange man tactics. I assumed this was right, since I'd agree that he's quite possibly the worst human being to ever lead a modern democracy, and just doesn't seem that intelligent to boot. But... now that he's gone through with it and multiple countries have also responded in kind, as well as getting quite angry about it, is it fair to say that they are an effective tool after all? Even if it is as subtle as a sledgehammer? Like I get that it's bad for international trade relations, and beyond imaginable not that long ago that a US president would be slapping them on long term allies, but is it the case that they actually do work?