Consumer sentiment among American households might’ve improved again this month were it not for the onset of a war with the potential to drive gas prices into the stratosphere.

That was the overarching message from the preliminary March read on the marquee measure of American moods, released on Friday.

At 55.5, the University of Michigan headline was the lowest since December. As noted, the downtick from February’s final reading was attributable entirely to war angst.

“Interviews completed prior to the military action in Iran showed an improvement in sentiment from last month, but lower readings seen during the nine days thereafter completely erased those initial gains,” survey director Joanne Hsu remarked.

The implication: If the war continues, the Trump administration’s risking even lower readings on consumer sentiment than the ones observed around the government shutdown and “Liberation Day.” That could mean Trump tying or breaking records for post-1980 all-time lows on the component measures.

In Friday’s release, the current conditions index printed 57.8, up from last month. The expectations gauge slipped to 54.1 (as a reminder, the long-term average on the forward-looking measure is 78). “About half” of the interviews for the survey were collected after the war started.

The release included the visual shown below, which gives you a sense of the war’s impact on consumer expectations for gas prices and inflation more generally.

“Gasoline prices have exerted the most immediate impact felt by consumers, though the magnitude of passthrough to other prices remains highly uncertain,” Hsu went on to say.

The political strategist in me would advise Trump against running this sort of risk in a mid-term year, but I gotta admit: He’s starting to look like an idiot savant when it comes to both domestic political strategy and foreign policy.

That’s as hard for me to admit as it undoubtedly is for some of you to read. But he’s broken every conceivable taboo, both at home and abroad, and somehow he’s not only still President of the United States, he’s synonymous with the country’s politics.

So, what do I know? What do any of us know? I assume it’s still a safe bet that Americans will revolt at the ballot box in the face of an unpopular Mideast war and high prices, but who’s to say the mid-terms will meet any conventional definition of “free and fair” if they’re held at all?