Every country in the world maintains a wide range of special rules, tariffs, regulations, etc... that all act as a government-imposed artificial "barrier" to trade. There are actually a ton of "non-tariff" barriers as well. All countries do this, all countries always will. It is just a matter of degree. I'm obviously a rabid "free-trader" and passionately believe that very important issues such as our economic backbone and even global relations depend on how we maintain these principles, but I recognize that we are always going to do some degree of industry/product specific "protecting" for all kinds of reasons. Some may be purely politically motivated and I'd argue fairly disgusting (in terms of representing the epitome of special interest politics) with really bad results, but such is life.

Those who believe -- especially in certain industries -- that we have anything close to some kind of "pure free trade" are absolutely ignorant. Yes, the U.S. has been the global beacon for several decades pushing for and representing free(er) trade, fewer tariffs, fewer barriers, etc... and I'd say this is one of if not the largest single factor that has has led to the overall economic success of this country and the key factor in bringing positive change to other countries -- notwithstanding the belief from TK et. al. that this policy has essentially economically ruined our country.

In other words, I'm not disputing the fact that we have been a relative world leader representing "free trade" for at least a few decades. I don't think we are moving in a very smart direction on this front today, but this is a different issue and didn't start just with Trump -- he is just helping bring it to a new level. However, no country has some pure free-trade system and likely never will. So it is hard to analyze any action under such a purely philosophical light. It is a matter of whether a specific action makes sense partly given the general philosophy but also given the facts of any specific case.