Trump is destroying international trade, with the goal of increasing an already tilted playing field even more in the US's interest. And it has found a good lever to push, so this will work in the medium term. Basically, he is discounting short term pain for long term gain, betting that other leaders are not crazy enough to step up the conflict beyond trade, and that everybody will prefer to accept Trump's demands rather than using the next levers at their disposal. Which are:

1) the dollar

2) military conflict

We'll see