This seems to be the Left-wing version of the Right-wing claim that he "cucked out on tariffs".

Did everyone just expect that he would never reduce tariffs from 125%? More importantly, the trade negotiations are STILL ongoing with China. Everyone keeps screaming that they know what the outcome of the tariffs and "liberation day" were, but in most cases Trump got basically new trade deals, or the negotiations of trade deals are still ongoing. The primary objective of these tariffs not being the tariffs themselves, but in fundamentally changing the structure of international trade, and completely reforming how trade is conducted internationally.

I think some people really thought that all of the worlds manufacturing would just re-open in the US by now. One of the libertarian complaints about the tariffs was correct: the factories that Trump wants in the US haven't been built yet. The global economy has to shift in our direction, and it seems clear that Trump (if not his negotiators) understand that. As was the case in 2019, they are off-shoring from China back to Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines; while foreign corporations are pledging to increase industrial infrastructure in the US.

Both the hysterical right and hysterical libertarian responses seemed to have assumed that the tarrifs were never part of a larger trade negotiation strategy.

As for the Left's willful misinterpretation, they seem to believe (in a similar way) that if Trump every backed down from his highest demands (which he does literally 100% of the time as per his stated strategy), then it means he failed. These are the same people who told you that Joe Biden had the strongest economy in history.