It’s been a trope of this column that Donald Trump’s poll numbers improve (slightly) when he mostly watches TV and tweets about how the world’s out to get him, only to sag when he tries to govern.

It happened when he tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and during the push to pass the tax cut that looms as Trump’s sole presidential accomplishment. The attempt in fall 2018 to conjure a menacing border “caravan” out of mostly women and children helped cost Trump’s party 40 seats in Congress.

By that standard, Wednesday’s stunt at the White House, where the president of the United States cancelled talks with congressional leaders over a $2 trillion infrastructure package that might have helped the economy for decades, was kind of smart. Maybe even the “impromptu” press conference where he threatened to do nothing legislatively until Congress stops investigating what looks, on the surface, like a lifetime of corruption wasn’t as freaklicious as it looked.

“ Nancy Pelosi can dangle Trump like a mouse impaled on a cat’s paw. ”

This approach should make The Donald super popular, in fact.

By his standards. Which aren’t much.

Mostly, Wednesday demonstrates why House Democrats are wise to play out Trump’s drama, rather than rush toward impeachment for a long list of possible crimes, most still poorly understood.

Trump plays the victim

The early impeachment that more-impatient Democrats seek would let Trump play victim, and force a trial in a Republican-led Senate to remove him based on evidence known now or soon. Democrats could lose even before they enforce subpoenas for Trump’s financial records.

In other words, they might try the case before they know enough to get skittish Republicans to buck Trump.

Or they can put on enough heat to make Trump sweat — as he tries to govern. Maybe he’ll float new unpopular approaches to health care, or immigration. Maybe Little Jared Kushner, Trump’s weirdly-powerful son-in-law, can float a dead-on-arrival Middle East peace plan.

Meanwhile, Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can dangle Trump like a mouse impaled on a cat’s paw. And impeach him later, if the big kitty in D.C. wants to.

“I pray for the president of the United States,” Pelosi snarked afterwards.

Look at Trump’s recent numbers — polls, recent economic data, even Trump’s beloved stock-market indices.

The president’s net disapproval margin in the Real Clear Politics average of multiple polls has widened to nearly 11 points. Gallup’s poll, which had narrowed to a 4-point margin in April, is back to 10. Even Rasmussen Reports, the Republican lapdog that three weeks ago claimed Trump’s approval rating was 51%, has him at minus 5 (47% approve, 52% disapprove). The worst poll for Trump, from Quinnipiac University, has him at minus 19, with 54% of voters saying they definitely won’t vote to re-elect him next year.

Counting on the Electoral College to save Trump again?

Don’t.

Trump underwater where it counts

In Iowa, which Trump won in 2016, his minus 8 standing is exactly where he was last November, when Democrats won three of four Iowa congressional seats, including two pickups. In three Midwest industrial states that Trump carried by a total of less than 80,000 votes, he’s minus 7 (Pennsylvania), minus 10 (Michigan) and minus 13 (Wisconsin), according to Morning Consult polls from April — before Trump’s numbers tanked as he picked a new trade fight with China.

In Arizona, the first state Democrats hope Trump’s anti-Latinx rhetoric will flip to them, he’s minus 7. No Republican presidential nominee has lost Arizona since Bob Dole in 1996 — and before him, Thomas Dewey in 1948.

Yes, it’s early. But it’s an argument for Democrats to handle Trump as they have been.

Because he won’t accomplish anything Democrats don’t like by staying. Then he’ll lose re-election, probably big.

All that’s left as arguments for impeachment, to be morbid, is the possibility that liberal, 80-something Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Stephen Breyer might die. But if Trump is impeached, President Mike Pence would appoint successor(s) — he’s an evangelical Christian who actually believes what Trump claims to about abortion and gay rights.

And that not impeaching Trump means we live with his circus for another year. But the circus intensifies if impeachment moves forward.

Fading boom

A month ago, conventional wisdom said Trump would come back based on an economic boom that lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 SPX, +0.29% . Pity that the boom, never real, seems to be petering out.

April data suggests second-quarter growth will be below a 2% annual rate — well off a first-quarter 3.2% clip inflated by statistical anomalies. Retail sales are weakening, and retailers like Kohl’s KSS, -1.53% had below-forecast first-quarter profits. “April retail sales and industrial production reports suggested a slower pace of consumption growth in the second quarter,” economists at Goldman Sachs say.

And that was before Trump threatened 25% tariffs on Chinese goods, which Goldman’s Jan Hatzius thinks could shave half a point off of U.S. economic growth. Just talking about them cut the stock market by almost 5%, leaving the S&P flat since January 2018. Even Apple AAPL, +1.02% got hit, as iPhone tariffs became plausible.

When the man tries to actually govern, it gets worse. A little for us. But mostly, for him.