All of the above. It affords plausible deniability while maintaining the cruelty. Thinking people wonder why, he does what he wants. There is no reason. There is no plan.

Most people from within his own party disagreed with him. But he insisted he is right and demanded to have his way. They gave into him, supported him and and he was elected, which as far as he was concerned proved he is right. A two year old who is never denied will continue to do what they want, when they want. It’s all about him. The attention he is getting just feeds his ego.

They are already supposedly announcing a possible rollback tomorrow. He will announce that the Mexicans and Canadians are now doing what he wants.

tRump's smooth brain see tariffs as a big stick to intimidate and magic source of unlimited revenue. As he is incapable of sequential thinking, he doesn't see the potential blowback, if other countries choose to fight back.

Yes, there's some nationalism in there, but he is driven more by ego and stupid, reactionary self interest. He somehow thinks he can fund tax cuts for the rich by extracting 1 trillion dollars in tariffs from 3 trillion dollars in trade.

to weaken and destroy the country so they can takeover, permanently.

So that's what I voted for. However, I also believe the 'creating an extreme crisis' may well also be true. He wants Emergency/War powers, badly. These are two things that are not at all mutually exclusive, though that's true of most of the combinations in the poll.