WASHINGTON — Increasingly, when it comes to foreign trade, the Trump administration is talking loudly and brandishing a small stick.

The widening gap between President Trump’s bellicose talk and the modest actions of his administration was again on display Friday afternoon as he presided at the ceremonial signing of two executive orders. They would, he said, “set the stage for a great revival of American manufacturing.”

“Under my administration, the theft of American prosperity will end,” he said.

But the new orders, authorizing a large research study and strengthened enforcement of an existing law, are unlikely to effect a major change in the nation’s fortunes. Instead, the ceremony highlighted an emerging pattern on trade.

Mr. Trump blasted the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a “potential disaster” and made a great show of removing the United States from the ratification process. On Friday, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers on trade said the Trump administration planned to use the scorned agreement as a “starting point” for its own deals.