What is there to cope with? I’m not in favor of a trade war or anything, but if someone is going to claim we are desperate or make other claims that I believe to be sensationalist, wrong, or misleading I’ll just call them out. “Do this or else” always get an “else” from me, and I suspect the vast majority of Americans too.
By the way, this same logic applies to Canada. Why are they increasing prices of imported goods? There isn’t any great struggle going on here or greater good. And yes before you say “we are standing up to the US” we can say “we are standing up against trade practices we find unfair (regardless of their accuracy).