Self sufficiency is just not a credible argument here.
This is about consumer footwear, not agriculture (nor all of manufacturing).
The US (and most other nations that can afford to) is perfectly used to throwing ~$20 billion at the sector to keep local agriculture operational.
We did not do this for literally every industry in the past because we had (and have) neither the idle workforce to do this, nor does the local population want to do the work (even for slightly uncompetitive wages), nor do consumers want to pay for the difference.
My personal prediction is that people will realize this pretty soon with the consequences of the Trump tariffs manifesting and the whole thing will be rolled back and scaled down, with pretty much nothing to show for it.
The shoes aren't even needed. Growing up in Scotland (not poor) in the 1970s I had one pair of shoes. When they wore out my mother would buy me a new pair. Today in the US I have so many pairs of shoes I don't really have space to store them and sometimes end up buying a new pair of shows I already own because I can't keep track of what's in the closet.
Btw the one thing that will be left to show is a wider realization that it's a bad idea to elect a crazy person.
I'm sure it's comforting to assume that all politicians are equally corrupt and equally insane and so your vote doesn't actually matter one way or the other but Kamala Harris wouldn't be acting like this, nor would Biden. Hell, not even other Republicans.
This is about consumer footwear, not agriculture (nor all of manufacturing).
The US (and most other nations that can afford to) is perfectly used to throwing ~$20 billion at the sector to keep local agriculture operational.
We did not do this for literally every industry in the past because we had (and have) neither the idle workforce to do this, nor does the local population want to do the work (even for slightly uncompetitive wages), nor do consumers want to pay for the difference.
My personal prediction is that people will realize this pretty soon with the consequences of the Trump tariffs manifesting and the whole thing will be rolled back and scaled down, with pretty much nothing to show for it.