When President Donald Trump’s approval ratings dropped sharply in April, the wound was essentially self-inflicted and the prescription relatively simple: Dial it back . Meaning smaller and less destructive tariffs, a retreat from brinkmanship with the Supreme Court, less random hacking away at government programs by Elon Musk and Co.

The administration did chill out, to some degree. Musk departed, the tariffs diminished from their “Liberation Day” maximum, the White House stopped shipping people to the Salvadoran dungeon and began picking its judicial battles more carefully. And sure enough, Trump’s approval ratings bobbed back up.

But now he’s down again, to the lowest point of this presidency, with the generic ballot threatening a midterm bloodbath for his party. And this time the pres

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