That's what tariffs are for. There is no contradiction and no hypocrisy. Nobody is against tariffs as a concept, every country protects some industry that is deemed critical (like agriculture) with tariffs and trade barriers. What people complain about are wholesale, generalized tariffs on everything from everywhere based on a ChatGPT suggestion. Protecting a key industry like electric car manufacturing using tariffs is fine, using tariffs for everything because you just learned the word, is not.