It is not difficult to identify some of the big contradictions in Donald Trump’s trade war with China.
The most glaring, perhaps, is that America’s trade deficit with Beijing — the US president’s primary yardstick for success in international economics — has risen since he began ratcheting up tariffs on Beijing, when he had promised to bring it down.
Another is that Mr Trump’s levies have inflicted more damage to his political base in America’s industrial and agricultural heartland than he would acknowledge. Even steel companies, which should be the biggest beneficiaries of his protectionist policies, have suffered from falling equity prices and stagnant jobs growth, according to a New York Times analysis last month.