Catherine Rampell takes a closer look at Donald Trump’s economic plans and concludes they would be a disaster — especially for the native-born working-class voters the Manhattan businessman is appealing to.

One analysis suggests the American economy would be 6.5 percent smaller by 2021 if Trump had his way. It would also have 9.4 million fewer jobs.

And that doesn’t even take into account the possibility that he might default on America’s debt or bring back the gold standard. Trump has flirted with both.

Shake things up

“Overall, the picture painted by these forecasts is terrifying,” writes Rampell.

It suggests voters here may voluntarily bring a Category 5 economic hurricane upon themselves. And for what? To “shake things up”? To give the middle finger to “the establishment?”

Exactly.

Exasperating

She draws a parallel with the United Kingdom, where, polls suggest, millions are willing to do serious harm to their economy by voting to leave the European Union, all to express their discontent with the political class.

It’s exasperating. But it’s also a wake-up call. If so many people, on both sides of the Atlantic, are prepared to take a leap in the dark because they no longer trust the politicians and institutions cautioning them not to, something has clearly gone wrong in our body politic.

By the way, if you wish to learn more about how a wealthy man like Trump can have such misguided views on the economy, read Adam Davidson’s in The New York Times Magazine. His argument is that Trump, schooled in the cutthroat, macho world of New York real estate, thinks every problem can be solved with a good “deal”.