The rationale is that there is balance between the cost of the tariffs and the resultant job creation that the tariffs stimulate. In the end what hurts the consumers is that the price for their purchases go up. In the short term, if consumers are forced to pay extra because they can't buy a local equivalent for less than the tariff. Price inflation occurs and consumers require higher wages to pay for their purchases. Higher wages pushes and entrenches the new price. If the tariffs create new demand for a workforce, one of two things has to happen. Either wages go up or immigrants are imported to fill the increased demand for workers to manufacture goods in the US.