Indeed. The Pharisees wanted one of two outcomes:
Jesus says Jews owe taxes to Rome, which ends his appeal to the crowd, or
Jesus openly says Jews shouldn't pay taxes, which results in immediate imprisonment and execution by Roman authorities.
Instead, Jesus chose option 3, exposing the hypocrisy of Pharisees carrying a graven image of a deified Roman into the temple while alluding to the crowd's daily choice of who to serve.
Thank you for this post man, I am a new fan of yours. Keep being the Salt and Light brother.