President Donald Trump is pushing the economy to a breaking point with sweeping tariffs and rapid cuts to immigration and the federal workforce. There is growing fear of not just a recession but stagflation, a frightful situation — not seen in the United States since the 1970s — in which the economy contracts and people lose jobs but prices remain high.

This is a self-inflicted wound from Trump. Many of his economic advisers, including Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore, are urging him to show restraint on tariffs. But Trump is set to unleash the biggest increase in tariffs since the Depression era on Wednesday. He’s calling it “Liberation Day.” It might turn out to be Stagflation Day.

Consumer sentiment has plunged more than 30 percent since November, when Trump won the election. What’s particularly striking in the latest University of Michigan Survey of Consumers is how many people are suddenly worried about rising unemployment and rising prices — a........

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