Partly this is just Trump. As far as I can tell, he is incapable of long-term planning, and seems to think that all problems are PR problems.
All short-term impulses and pettiness; no ability to understand that such a thing as a serious response even exists, let alone that he is not now engaged in one.
Not Trump.
However ...
Those days are long gone.
The fact that NOW, of all times, he's gone all "oh no, mustn't interfere with the FREE MARKET!!!" is not, imho, HIM.