But customers don't buy chips, they buy stuff, and chips are in everything. There's the obvious (phones, tablets etc), but also everything else, like cars, washing machines, tvs, air fryers, plus more.

Clearly tarrifs drive (domestic) prices up, which will cause some level of inflation, but it will be across the board (not on "chips"). And clearly that will weaken demand.

But given global demand that will likely not be all that noticeable. Indeed it'll likely just result in US manufacturing being less competitive. Certainly it'll make US manufactured products more expensive on the world market.

Which likely leads to more American plants moving offshore, not onshore.

So the higher cost of cars—because they have chips in them that cost more and that is passed onto drivers—will stop people from buying cars?

The higher cost of microwaves will stop people from buying microwaves? And stop buying stoves? And refrigerators?

People will buy fewer smartphones? Businesses will buy fewer laptops and servers?

If the hike is bad enough we might see a return to kitchen electrics that don't use microcontrollers at all. Unironically good news if you want physical buttons again.

I'm arguing there are items that are less elastic when it comes to prices:

* https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/priceelasticity.asp

Someone lives in the US, which is addicted to sprawling, car-centric suburbs. Car prices go up. What are they going to do? Walk? Bike? Take public transit? (Which is one of the arguments for (so-called) 15 minutes cities: it gives people more freedom to choose their mode of transportation instead of forcing one particular mode.)

Are you not going to buy a refrigerator when yours break down and food starts going bad?

While they can stretch out the depreciation/lifespan schedule, are business going to stop buying laptops and servers? If their (capex) costs go up, are the businesses going to eat that cost or pass it on to their customers?