Earlier this week—and by that we mean yesterday—reports surfaced that the U.S. and China were “trying to restart talks aimed at averting a full-blown trade war,” after stable genius Donald Trump blew the last ones to smithereens. Twenty-four hours later, how’s that going? Pretty great, if one considers Trump stomping his feet and threatening to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent to be “great.”

Oh, that’s right. Just a day after the news that there was “agreement among the principal [negotiators] that more discussions need to take place,” President Art of the Deal has reportedly directed U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer to look into significantly increasing tariffs on Chinese goods like handbags, chemicals, fish, and petroleum. The escalation is unsurprisingly being pushed by hard-line trade adviser Peter Navarro, whom Jared Kushner hired after finding his book, Death by China, on the Internet, and Stephen Bannon, who left the White House in August but like a old woman in a nightgown has been haunting the place and “counseling the president to pursue tougher levies.” To be clear, the 25 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports would be on top of the levies already in place on $34 billion worth of goods, and an additional $16 billion set to go into effect in short order. Thus far, China has responded in kind, slapping its own tariffs on $34 billion worth of U.S. exports, including pork, electric vehicles, soybeans, and other goods. And in a move truly no one could have predicted, they’re not thrilled about Trump’s latest threat.

“China’s position is firm and clear: pressure and blackmail from the U.S. won’t work,” Geng Shuang, the foreign ministry’s spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday. “If the U.S. takes a further and upgraded move, China would definitely retaliate to safeguard our legal rights.” As is the case with so many things that come from the mind of Donald Trump, this particular idea is multi-pronged in its stupidity. As the Times notes, a 25 percent levy would increase the cost of a host of products the U.S. imports at a time when inflation is picking up, something the Federal Reserve would have to take into account in deciding how quickly to raise interest rates. “This gets you nothing,” said __Fred Bergsten,__ founder of the Institute for International Economics. “It adds to inflation pressure and interest rates and [would] strengthen the dollar, which makes trade situation even worse.”

Crucially, the move would screw American consumers and businesses even more than it already has. Last week the White House said it would provide $12 billion in subsidies to help farmers hurt by his trade policies, but it has given no indication it would do anything for other industries taking a hit, such as manufacturers laying off employees left and right, and facing going out of business. (Incidentally, bailing out all of the groups Trump has f--ked over would cost taxpayers $39 billion, and that‘s just accounting for the initial damage.) “Increasing the size of the tariffs is merely increasing the harm that will be done,” Matthew Shay, the president of the National Retail Federation, told the Times. “Tariffs are an unacceptable gamble with the U.S. economy and the stakes continue to rise with no end in sight.” They don’t call him the Dealmaker in Chief for nothing!