Embattled Trump says economy will ‘crash’ if he is impeached
Attacks Cohen, praises Paul Manafort for going to trial, sparking speculation of a pardon
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump warned on Thursday the US economy would collapse if he were impeached, as legal chaos roiling the White House has experts saying his presidency is under threat.
Days after Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen told a federal judge he made illegal campaign contributions at the president’s request to silence women alleging affairs with Trump, the Republican leader told Fox News that an impeachment would only cause more turmoil.
“I will tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor,” Trump said on Fox and Friends. “You would see ...numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse.”
Trump then launched into a rambling statement on job creation and other economic progress he said had been made during his presidency. “I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job.”
Trump was dealt severe backto-back blows on Tuesday when Cohen pled guilty to illegal campaign finance violations and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud within minutes of each other.
The Manafort conviction was the first case sent to trial by the special prosecutor probing Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The president has insisted he did nothing wrong after Cohen implicated him in the illicit hush payments made before the 2016 election to two women who claimed to have had affairs with the Republican presidential candidate. Although Cohen did not name them, the women were believed to be porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen Mcdougal.
Trump was evasive when asked in the Fox News interview if he had instructed Cohen to make the payments, saying that his former lawyer “made the deals,” and insisted that Cohen’s actions were “not a crime.”
“Campaign violations are considered not a big deal, frankly,” he said.
Trump then said the hush payments were financed with his own money to which Cohen had access and that while he had no knowledge of them at the time, he had since been fully transparent.
Trump praised Manafort for going to trial, where the president’s former campaign chief was found guilty of eight counts of financial fraud.
The US president lauded the 69-year-old Manafort for leaving his fate to a jury rather than striking a plea deal , a move that has sparked speculation Manafort hopes for a pardon.
Asked if he was considering such a move, Trump said only that he has “great respect for what he has done, in terms of what he has gone through.”