Who benefited?
The rich received tax cuts so that instead of being forced to re-invest in their own equipment and human resources if they wanted to keep the profits, could pocket the money instead. Then "free trade" allowed them to mothball their factories, laying off US workers and cutting human resources costs, along with having to comply with environmental regulations. Just move the factory to Mexico, China, Thailand, wherever. Those countries allow slave labor and don't care if the water, air and soil are poisoned. Then the rich gave their money to Wall St. criminals to inflate bubbles, for a nice ROI. And if/when the market crashes, they then buy up valuable assets for pennies on the dollar, and either load those assets with debt before cashing out, or sell the assets for scrap.
Rinse, repeat. For the past 40 years. Both here, and in the UK. Thatcher first, then St. Ronald of Reagan.
The same class of people who benefit by being wealthy and using their wealth to maintain/increase their power have benefited. Time and time again.
This is voodoo economics, without the voodoo of rising tides lifting all boats. The rich get richer. The middle class struggles to stay where they are without borrowing against the future. And the poor, well, they stay poor, because that's what poor people are for. And then the people who voted for these policies get pissed that poor people have a smart phone, which is both cheap because the rich want them to be cheap, and necessary in our 1st world service-based economy (because manufacturing was scrapped...by the rich, who can earn much more if they use foreign slave labor).
Tariffs are essentially closing the barn door after the horses were purposefully sold to China to be turned to horse meat, and resold to the serfs working the farm...paid for with company scrip.
Voodoo economics was designed to create the very economy we have today. Full stop.
Everything is a feature, and not a bug. Oligarchs want serfs working on their estate. And slowly but surely they're getting it.