The "internal logic" is that Trump thinks trade deficits are bad. That's it. He's been going on about this since the 1980s:
* https://archive.is/https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-forged...
* https://archive.is/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/us/pol...
Every justification for that "logic" is rationalization for the decision Trump has already made.