Trump started trade war with China without 'one single deliberative meeting': report

President Donald Trump's legendary impulsiveness may have reached a new crescendo with his off-the-fly talk of huge new Chinese tariffs, according to new details reported by Axios.

"There wasn’t one single deliberative meeting in which senior officials sat down to debate the pros and cons of this historic threat," the story says. "Trump didn’t even ask for advice from his new top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, instead presenting the tariffs as a fait accompli."

John Kelly, the chief of staff who has been reduced to a "virtual White House intern," and others were left in the dark, the report says. And no one had discussed the possible effect on the market.

Some are hoping that Kudlow, a staunch free trade advocate, will now temper Trump before this escalates into a full-scale trade war. Don't bet on it, according to the report.

"But with Trump as mercurial as he is, any soothing words from Kudlow should be taken with a very large grain of salt," Axios writes.