President Donald Trump went rogue in his own White House last week, blindsiding his staff by announcing he would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. His motives apparently had little do with trade policy. NBC News, citing two unnamed officials, reported that “Trump’s decision to launch a potential trade war was born out of anger at other simmering issues and the result of a broken internal process that has failed to deliver him consensus views that represent the best advice of his team.” Those “simmering issues” include the resignation of communications director Hope Hicks, his close confidant; the downgrading of Jared Kushner’s security clearance, which will limit his son-in-law’s ability to advise the president; and the open defiance of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who stood up to Trump’s bullying over the Russia investigation.

Here's an image for Trump tonight —— Jeff Sessions with Rod Rosenstein and Solicitor General Noel Francisco https://t.co/kyGgsJzLwF — Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) March 1, 2018

Frustrated by events he could not control, Trump exerted his executive authority by making a unilateral decision. “When White House aides arrived at work on Thursday,” The New York Times reported, “they had no clear idea of what Mr. Trump would say about trade.” The White House was thus forced to roll out a major new policy, with lasting implications for the global economy, on the fly. One White House staffer admitted not even understanding the policy:

Another WH econ adviser told me re the tariff announcement: "“I don’t understand what we announced, I don’t know what the policy is." https://t.co/7Jgiggjt0X — Ben White (@morningmoneyben) March 2, 2018

Everyone, it seems, is confused—even those whom the policy might help. As The Wall Street Journal reported, “the lack of details about Mr. Trump’s tariff plan injected major unknowns into business planning, executives and trade groups say.” Does the tariff apply to all steel and aluminum? From every country? “No one knows yet,” a Washington lobbyist told the Journal. “I don’t think the president knows.” Some U.S. manufacturers worry the tariffs will “drive up domestic prices and fuel inflation.”



The European Union, Canada, and China are already threatening to respond in kind. The Times reported that U.S. trade partners “promised to retaliate against quintessential American goods like Kentucky bourbon, bluejeans and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. That is likely to turn into a wave of protest aimed at American products as other countries, including traditional allies, respond to Mr. Trump’s plan to clamp down on imports of metals from overseas.” The president may well get the trade war he seeks.

When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 2, 2018

The tariffs are a prime example of the dangers of Trump’s management style. “For 13 months in the Oval Office, and in an unorthodox business career before that, Donald J. Trump has thrived on chaos, using it as an organizing principle and even a management tool,” the Times’ Mark Landler and Maggie Haberman wrote. “Now the costs of that chaos are becoming starkly clear in the demoralized staff and policy disarray of a wayward White House.” At Politico, John Harris and Andrew Restuccia described “this week’s spasm of sudden policy lurches, graceless personal insults, oozing scandal news, and ceaseless West Wing knife fights” as “the starkest example to date of President Donald Trump’s executive style looking untenable not merely from the outside—from the perspective of establishment politicians and media analysts—but from the inside, too.”

