President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum this spring was alarming for a number of reasons. The economic impact of tariffs may be negligible in the big picture, but they would certainly have negative repercussions for specific sectors of the U.S. economy. They alienated Canada and key allies in Europe and Asia for no good reason. There are good arguments for altering the U.S.’s trade agreements, but Trump’s tariffs, which have fed an embryonic trade war, were reckless and harmful.

Recent reporting suggests there’s more to come. Axios has reported that Trump has threatened “100 times” to withdraw from the World Trade Organization, telling advisers, “We always get fucked by [the WTO] I don’t know why we’re in it. The WTO is designed by the rest of the world to screw the United States.” Aides have presented the president with evidence that America has benefited quite a lot from being a part of the WTO, which has enjoyed broad bipartisan support since the U.S. effectively founded it in 1995. But Trump is having none of it, pushing a bill called the Fair and Reciprocal Trade Act that would kneecap the WTO by allowing the administration to jettison many of its most important rules.

If the United States were to leave the World Trade Organization it would be a disaster for global trade, entailing a possible global recession. That, thankfully, is not going to happen. The kinds of changes being proposed by the Trump administration would require congressional approval. Even for congressional Republicans who are yoked to Trump, free trade is a sore subject. For those who occasionally spar with him, like Senator Jeff Flake, it is a veritable third rail, with Flake recently announcing that he would not support the confirmation of any judges (except for Anthony Kennedy’s Supreme Court replacement) unless Trump de-escalates his budding trade war.

But Trump’s threats do provide a window into a White House that is increasingly merging pageantry with real policy. The administration’s saber-rattling is best read as a dramatic bluff, an attempt to convince allies (and, perhaps, markets) that he’s serious. The problem, however, is that there is little substance behind the bluff.

Trade is one of the few areas of policy where Trump has had consistent views going back decades. His belief is that the United States is being bled dry by poorly negotiated trade deals and that it needs to get tough with all the countries that are humiliating it. “A lot of people are tired of watching other countries ripping off the United States,” he said, back in 1987. “They laugh at us behind our backs. They laugh at us because of our own stupidity.” Trump’s consistency on this point surely played a role in his election victory, helping him break the “blue wall” in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.