Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the power dynamics, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s White House. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben There’s a trade war a-brewin’ — and we’re not talking about the on-again, off-again one between the U.S. and Mexico, Canada and China. We’re talking about the one happening inside President DONALD TRUMP’s mind. It’s no secret Trump loves tariffs. He’s called tariffs the “most beautiful word in the dictionary.” But the back-and-forth on tariffs over the last week — which hit a fever pitch Saturday with Trump slapping massive tariffs on the country's two North American allies and China — underscored the tension not just around who tariffs will be imposed on, at what level and on what goods — but why Trump wants to impose them. Trump’s action shocked not just businesses and foreign governments, but even some Trump allies who saw his tariff threats as a negotiating tactic and were gobsmacked when it looked like they might actually take effect. In announcing the levies on Friday, Trump said there was nothing the countries could do to win a delay. A trade war looked imminent. That all had changed by Monday morning, when Trump announced he had reached an agreement with Mexico President CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM to delay tariffs on her country until March 1 — after she agreed to send 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. Hours later, the U.S. reached a similar agreement with Canada, which promised to send new choppers, technology and personnel to the border in exchange for a 30-day pause on the tariffs. “I felt kind of guilty for freaking out over the weekend,” said one person close to the Trump administration, granted anonymity to speak candidly about their thinking. “I should have assumed it was a feint.” “This is the mad man negotiating tactic, so how do you figure it out?” the person added. (Still, China was not out of the woods as of Monday afternoon, with tariffs set to take effect Tuesday and Trump threatening to ramp up tariffs on the country even more.) For weeks, Trump has been threatening to levy 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada and a 10 percent tariff on China — an effort he said would pressure them to stem the tide of both migrants and illegal fentanyl over their borders. Border security is, of course, another issue that is dear to the president’s heart. But it also provides him with the legal justification needed to impose tariffs without congressional authority by using the president’s emergency authority. At the same time — and often in the same breath — he’s railed against how he believes the three countries have long taken advantage of the American market and need to pay for it, both literally and figuratively, in the form of tariffs. Those are a much different, and much more permanent, set of “America First” tariffs grounded not in immigration policy but economics. His rhetoric has repeatedly muddled the two issues together. Talking with reporters on Monday, Trump spent more time railing against how the U.S. wasn’t being treated well economically by Canada — which he called “very, very tough to do business with,” complaining that they “don’t take our agricultural product, for the most part, they don’t take our cars” — than he did voicing concerns about the border. A person familiar with Trump’s thinking on tariffs, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, said that Trump’s Saturday executive orders were “definitely a negotiating tactic” and denied that the president was swayed by the stock market or a scathing editorial from the Wall Street Journal. (Other Trump confidants were skeptical: Trump has long viewed the stock market as a political referendum.) White House press secretary KAROLINE LEAVITT, gaggling with reporters Monday afternoon, underscored the centrality of the border in these tariff negotiations. “The president is making it very clear to both Canada and Mexico that the United States is no longer going to be a dumping ground for illegal deadly drugs and illegal human beings,” Leavitt said before the agreement with Canada was announced. But multiple people close to the administration said they also see in his rhetoric the foreshadowing of a bigger, and broader, trade war, particularly as the U.S. prepares to renegotiate its trade agreements with Canada and Mexico. “He’s also going to want to see the movement on the deficit. I think for legal reasons they need to keep saying it’s about fentanyl and migration but they’re going to get into other issues as well,” said the first person. “There’s no way the president is going to go, ‘The fentanyl problem is fine, no tariffs.’” Speaking of tariffs, make sure to join us tomorrow morning for POLITICO’s third weekly policy breakfast, as our DASHA BURNS sits down with White House senior counselor for trade PETER NAVARRO. Sign up here to attend in person or watch online. Dasha Burns contributed to this report. MESSAGE US — Are you XI JINPING? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? 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