The tariff drama may be just another campaign like photo op, a con job. An Adoration Rally applause line.  Like his opioid emergency announcement, or the rescuing jobs at Carrier, or his televised gun control meeting. 

Corporate America Makes Its Case That Trump Tariffs Don't Apply

Under the new rules, an importer can ask the Commerce Department for a waiver if there’s a limited supply of the product in the U.S. or if national security is at stake. How that’ll be interpreted is anyone’s guess, but aluminum can makers, pipeline builders and car companies are now building their cases for why the tariffs shouldn’t apply to them.

Not betting anything is going to come of this, but the reactions in Congress should be noted including that Jeff Flake is talking putting together a bill to stop him, seems lots of GOP are very upset, but probably doing a wait and see as to what he actually does and how it will hurt them vote-wise, others seem to be hoping that oversight can soothe a lot of the trouble caused (I say fat chance on the latter considering:lobbyists!)

And also, maybe more importantly for the gang here, that Schumer made very mild criticism within a pro-protectionist bent!

Sen. Jeff Flake says Congress will try to nix Trump's proposed tariffs

Nicole Gaudiano and Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY, March 8, 2018

Here is Jeff Flake's official statement. It may be that a bill like that in waiting may be enough for the admin. to temper things? It's not clear yet, I haven't seen anything doing google news for the last half day after the above was published.

The USA Today article is good because, unlike many others,it reports on some of the Dem leadership reaction:

Will Democrats help?

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, said he wanted to see what Trump produces, but he believes Trump is "painting with too broad a brush."

"I think doing it in a generalized way runs the risk of an all-out trade war, which hurts many of our allies who are not guilty of trade abuses," Durbin said.

The Senate's top Democrat, Charles Schumer of New York, said Trump's instincts on trade were right. But the president was in danger of hurting U.S. allies with his broad approach.

Schumer and others said Trump should focus on the punitive trade levies on China and other global competitors who have flooded the U.S. market with cheap steel and aluminum, undercutting American manufacturers of those products. 

"China has been rapacious about trade," Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday. "If we don't stop China, America will be a weaker place with fewer good-paying jobs, with less wealth, less strength."

But "the haphazard way these tariffs were put together has caused the policy to miss the mark," Schumer said. 

Found helpful:

Gary Cohn Doesn’t Matter

The president matters to the economy much less than you think.

By ZACHARY KARABELL @ Politico Magazine, March 07, 2018

EU threatens to sue Britain if it negotiates UK exemption from Trump tariffs

By James Crisp, Brussels correspondent @ Telegraph.co.uk, March 9

Britain faces huge fines in an EU legal battle that would poison the Brexit negotiations, if Liam Fox secures a UK-only exemption from Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

The British Trade Secretary, who on Thursday accused the EU of acting like a gang in Brexit talks, said he would use a trip to Washington next week to secure a British carve-out from the US President’s levy of 25pc tariffs on steel and 10pc on aluminium [....]