During the 2018 Group of Seven summit in Canada, President Donald Trump made world leaders a stunning offer: a total elimination of all tariffs and barriers to trade between the world’s largest economies. “I said, ‘I have an idea. … Everybody take down your barriers. No barriers, no tax. Everybody, are you all set?’” Trump told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo after the summit. “You know what happened? Everybody said, ‘Uh, can we get onto another subject?’”

A few weeks later, he made the same offer to the European Union. “The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade,” Trump tweeted, “I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!”

None of our major trading partners showed any interest in Trump’s proposal. Fast forward seven years, and the E.U. is suddenly offering to negotiate “zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods,” as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put it last week. That sounded very much like the deal he offered them in his first term. What changed? Trump’s trade war. On April 2, the president announced he would impose a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on all E.U. imports – except for steel, aluminum and automobiles, which would be subject to a separate 25 percent tariff. That got Europe’s attention. “We prefer to have a negotiated solution,” von der Leyen said, later adding, “Europe is always ready for a good deal.”

It wasn’t ready seven years ago – or even seven weeks ago. It was only after Trump’s tariff announcement that European officials discovered their interest in the mutual elimination of protectionist trade barriers. (Trump rejected the European offer, saying eliminating tariffs on industrial goods was not good enough, and demanded the Europeans open their markets to U.S. agricultural products and expand energy purchases). It’s not just the E.U. More than 75 countries, according to the White House, are now offering to negotiate deals to lower or eliminate their tariffs on American-made goods and services. “Things that people wouldn’t have given us … three years ago, five years ago, seven, they’re giving us everything,” Trump said last week. “These countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir.’”

Let’s be clear: The execution of Trump’s tariff policy thus far leaves a lot to be desired. In the three days after the U.S. tariffs launched, global markets lost $10 trillion in value. As millions of Americans saw their 401(k) values plummet, and bond market began a sell-off, Trump was forced to declare a partial 90-day pause (but not for China, which now faces tariffs of 145 percent). He would have been much better off announcing from the outset that his tariffs would take effect in 90 days – which would have sparked the same scramble to cut deals but might have done so without causing the same market volatility. The biggest problem, however, is that none of our trading partners knew what Trump wanted – and it was not clear his own advisers did, either. Trade adviser Peter Navarro declared Trump’s tariffs were “not a negotiation” but an effort to dismantle a “rigged system” and attacked Elon Musk for advocating the very same “zero-for-zero” deal with Europe that Trump had proposed in his first term. Meanwhile Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was saying the opposite, calling Trump’s tariffs part of a “successful negotiating strategy ...”

Even now, it’s unclear what Trump will do. There seem to be two Donald Trumps – one who says “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the English language and a second, the author of the “Art of the Deal,” who sees them as leverage to negotiate deals with countries to take down trade barriers open their markets to U.S. exports. Let’s hope Trump chooses the latter course. Lowering other countries’ barriers to U.S. exports would do more to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and “make America wealthy again” than raising our own. Does Trump really love tariffs? Or does he profess his affection for them because it gives him leverage? Perhaps – fingers crossed – he’s applying President Richard M. Nixon’s “madman theory” to trade, convincing the world he is willing to blow up the global economy to bring nations to the table. Trump has said China will never invade Taiwan while he is president because Xi Jinping “knows I’m f---ing crazy.” Now, the E.U. knows as well.

The final result may be a mix. The goal with China is not to get to a “zero-for-zero” deal; it is to stop China’s malign behavior ranging from oversupply dumping to its theft of intellectual property and to reduce U.S. supply-chain dependence on Beijing for critical industries. This much is certain: If Trump manages to negotiate the reduction or elimination of trade barriers to U.S. exports in as many as 75 countries, our tariff-loving commander in chief could end up the greatest free-trade president in history.

Marc A. Thiessen is a Washington Post columnist.