WASHINGTON — President Trump’s flurry of trade moves this past week raised uncertainty and confusion among financial markets, trading partners, lawmakers and American industry, prompting many to ask what, exactly, his endgame might be.

Just one day before stiff steel and aluminum tariffs were set to go into effect, Mr. Trump offered a temporary 11th-hour reprieve to several allies, including some of the biggest foreign suppliers of steel. Many of them had spent the previous two weeks frantically lobbying the administration for a permanent exemption, but the White House said late Thursday that those nations would have until May 1 to negotiate “satisfactory alternative means” to address the national security threat that America faced from a reliance on foreign metals.

In addition to the metals tariffs, the White House announced levies on up to $60 billion worth of Chinese imports, a move that provoked immediate promises of retaliation by China and sent stock markets into a tailspin. On Saturday morning, the Chinese vice premier for financial and industrial policy, Liu He, told Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a phone call that the United States’ actions against China violate international trade rules and run counter to American, Chinese and global interests. He warned that China has the strength to defend its national interests.

On Friday, Mr. Trump boasted that his approach would produce better trade deals for the United States, including what he said was a breakthrough in negotiations with South Korea. “Some tremendous trade deals are being made with various countries,” he said. “We’re negotiating very long, very hard, but very quickly.”