Donald Trump's expertise — or at least, his own estimation of that seemingly boundless realm — grows ever more vast. He knows more about hurricanes than the National Weather Service, more about interest rates than the Federal Reserve, and more about renewable energy "than any human being on Earth."

So no one should be surprised that the president who practically invented internal combustion (some say) believes he knows what's best for the world's largest auto companies far better than the woefully low-IQ individuals currently who oversee them.

Trump's unique insight manifested itself yet again this week when the apparatchik he has tasked with systematically dismantling federal environmental regulations confirmed that the administration would revoke California's authority to set auto emissions standards stricter than the federal government's.

More:Why automakers may not change their strategies if Trump ends California emissions waiver

More:4 automakers reach emissions deal with California, bucking rollback

The move is a direct challenge not just to California and 13 other states that enforce those stricter pollution standards, but also to the four auto manufacturers who enraged the White House last month by striking a deal in which they agreed to observe California's fuel economy rules rather than the more-lenient ones Trump prefers.

Simple self-interest

Why would car companies competing in a cutthroat global market prefer tougher regulations to the reprieve from environmental responsibility the president has dangled before them?

If you believe the tweeter-in-chief, it's because the "politically correct" CEOs who run Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen of America, Honda and BMW are more interested in cozying up to California liberals like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi than in building the cheaper, safer cars Trump's relaxed emission standards would make possible.

But there are a couple of problems with that explanation.

The first is that there's scant evidence cars that spew more pollution would be safer or less expensive. Trump's own EPA concluded that rolling back the Obama administration's emission standards would result in more traffic fatalities, rather than fewer.

The second is that the car companies' rationale is both simpler and more logical: They prefer the "regulatory certainty" of California's ambitious miles-per-gallon standard to the the chaos of Trump's mercurial rule-making, which faces an uncertain fate in court.

What Trump ignores is the fact that countries in the ever-more-important international market (where automakers will wage the real contest for economic survival) are all headed in California's direction, not the president's.

What U.S. automakers are seeking is a regulatory regime in which the cars they manufacture will be both legal and attractive to buyers in the widest possible market. It doesn't help their bottom line if the cars they build to meet Trump's dumbed-down environmental standards are too dirty to sell elsewhere.

Then there's the planet

Throw in the facts that 1) tailpipe pollution is the largest source of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and 2) about two-thirds of American voters oppose Trump's proposed rollback and support preserving states' authority to enforce standards tougher than the EPA's, and you have the makings of a policy initiative that is as unpopular as it is environmentally irresponsible.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, who has forgotten more about the auto industry than President Goodwrench will ever know, says it succinctly:

“President Trump’s actions take us in the wrong direction for every key metric for this industry, accomplish absolutely nothing, and cause serious and detrimental harm to an industry that needs his support," the Democratic congresswoman from Dearborn said in a statement released Wednesday.

Dingell says U.S. car companies are "more fragile than many realize" and need a single set of vehicle mileage standards that extend "well into the future [and] increase year over year." She notes that both domestic and foreign manufactures explicitly asked the president to not revoke the long-standing federal waiver that allows California to set stricter admissions standards.

Instead, our know-it-all president has burdened the U.S. auto industry with more of the chaotic uncertainty that every CEO but Trump detests.

Brian Dickerson is the Editorial Page Editor of the Free Press. Contact him at bdickerson@freepress.com.