If it helps you feel better, Gallup now has Trump’s approval at 34 percent, which is equal to his lowest approval rating from his first term. If he drops to 33 percent, it will be his lowest Gallup approval ever. And speaking of dropping, the stock market is doing just that, big time. It’s been going lower all day, from what I can tell.

I can’t read the story at The Economist, but here’s the cover:

Here’s the first paragraph, which is as far as I can go:

IF YOUfailed to spot America being “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far” or it being cruelly denied a “turn to prosper”, then congratulations: you have a firmer grip on reality than the president of the United States. It’s hard to know which is more unsettling: that the leader of the free world could spout complete drivel about its most successful and admired economy. Or the fact that on April 2nd, spurred on by his delusions, Donald Trump announced the biggest break in America’s trade policy in over a century—and committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era.

Paul Krugman has been writing more than he did when he was a New York Times columnist. He has a lot to say. See Trump Goes Crazy on Trade  and Will Malignant Stupidity Kill the World Economy? This is from the latter:

America created the modern world trading system. The rules governing tariffs and the negotiating process that brought those tariffs down over time grew out of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, devised by FDR in 1934. The growth in international trade under that system had some negative aspects but was on balance very good for America and the world. It was, in fact, one of our greatest policy achievements.

Yesterday Donald Trump burned it all down.

See also Trump’s Trade War Risks Forfeiting America’s Economic Primacy by Patricia Cohen at the New York Times (gift article):

The global economic system that the United States has shaped and steered for more than three-quarters of a century was animated by a powerful guiding vision: that trade and finance would be based on cooperation and consent rather than coercion.

That system, for all its faults, entrenched the United States as the world’s richest nation and its sole financial superpower. The rule of law and the stability and trust that this approach generated helped make the dollar the world’s go-to currency for transactions and America a center of global investment.

By provoking a worldwide trade war, President Trump risks abandoning that vision of shared interests and replacing it with one that assumes sharp economic conflicts are unavoidable.

Gone are appeals to a larger purpose, mutual agreements or shared values. In this new order, the strongest powers determine the rules and enforce them through intimidation and bare-knuckled power.  …

… But quarterly gains and losses are trivial, many economists and political leaders said, compared with the potential long-term damage to the unique power and privileges that the United States has built up in the postwar global order. At stake are the country’s unmatched influence over the world’s financial system, the advantages its businesses enjoy and a reputation that attracts investors and innovators.

It may be that future generations will divide American history into two parts: pre-Trump and post-Trump. And the post-Trump America will be considerably less great.

Congress could stop this. Already the Senate — with some Republican votes — rescinded some of the tariffs Trump put on Canada.  And today “A bipartisan pair of Senate lawmakers on Thursday unveiled legislation they said would reaffirm Congress’ role in setting trade policy, just hours after the Donald Trump administration rolled out a slate of import tariffs on some of the country’s closest partners in commerce,” it says here. But can these bills pass in the House? That’s very unlikely, according to just about everybody.

I haven’t yet written about the massive layoffs at Health and Human Services. If you missed the interview with Dr. David Kessler on Rachel Maddow’s show last night, do watch.