Trump’s fluid approach to national, economic security is leaving his allies baffled

President Donald Trump is merging his national security and trade goals in a blur of tactical improvisation that risks alienating U.S. allies and opening American businesses to costly retaliation, according to several Republican lawmakers, business executives and former U.S. officials.

The president last week initiated a Commerce Department investigation that could lead to tariffs of up to 25 percent on foreign cars, arguing that a flood of imports had eroded the nation’s manufacturing base and threatened the nation’s security.

The potential auto tariffs — which would hit Mexico, Canada, Japan and Germany hardest — are the latest sign of the president’s fluid approach to national and economic security that has left allies and adversaries baffled over U.S. intentions, according to foreign diplomats.

The proposal has irritated close allies like Germany and the United Kingdom while inviting demands for similar protection from an ever-expanding list of U.S. industries.

The president holds an expansive view of national security, describing imported products like steel or passenger sedans as worrisome threats to the United States. Yet he also engages in freewheeling bargaining that treats vital strategic considerations as the equivalent of commercial factors, leaving negotiating partners unsure of his true priorities.

“Past presidents generally tried to keep national security issues in one lane and trade policy in another lane,” said Peter Harrell, a former official in the State Department’s bureau of economic and business affairs. “Trump is just more willing to make trade-offs between the two.”

The auto tariffs are the second time in less than three months that the president has cited national security as a justification for protectionism. Yet his recent call for leniency for ZTE, a Chinese telecom company crippled by its punishment for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea, showed that he would bend on a genuine security threat, analysts said.

Chinese leaders had demanded an easing of ZTE’s punishment in return for progress in trade talks that are scheduled to continue Saturday in Beijing with the arrival of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

On Friday, Trump announced on Twitter that he was allowing ZTE to “reopen” in return for management changes, payment of a $1.3 billion fine and a promise to buy American parts. The reversal on U.S. policy toward a company that had equipped two avowed U.S. enemies prompted bipartisan opposition in Congress.

“The striking feature of Trump’s use of national security is the inconsistent and haphazard use of the term, so as to render it meaningless,” said George Magnus, an associate at Oxford University’s China Center. “... What I see is Trump using national security as a blanket to obfuscate simple trade protectionism.”