Trump sows confusion on trade

It’s not always clear who is calling the shots for the U.S., or what our policies are

SHANGHAI — As the United States challenges Europe, China, Canada, Mexico and much of the rest of the world over trade, deep factionalism within the Trump administration has flummoxed both U.S. allies and rivals. The White House strikes a conciliatory tone one day and a militant one the next, often depending on which Trump advisers are in favor.

Increasingly, leaders in other countries are asking who is calling the shots: the globalists, the nationalists, the trade hawks or someone else?

To a degree, the mixed messages reflect the negotiating tactics of a president who likes to keep the other side off balance. Even while his team was in Beijing this weekend, President Donald Trump, in a Twitter post, suggested a confrontational approach, calling out China over the trade imbalance. The two sides made little progress in discussions.

The inconsistency has spurred international leaders to court Trump officials who they think will offer a sympathetic ear, rather than the White House as a whole — a divide-and-conquer approach that could make trade deals harder to strike. It has also eroded the belief among many leaders that the Trump administration will keep its word.

“We have to believe that at some point their common sense will prevail,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said in a tweet, referring to the American public, after the Trump administration’s latest move on tariffs. “But we see no sign of that in this action today by the U.S. administration.”

Even the Chinese government, which typically couches its most aggressive statements in oblique diplomatic terms, is increasingly talking about the administration with the rhetorical equivalent