I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job
Donald Trump
The outspoken US leader warned “everybody would be very poor” if he was ousted from office over hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal.
Mr Trump shrugged off the biggest crisis of his 18-month presidency in a bullish interview with American TV channel Fox News.
He said: “I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job. I will tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash.
“I think everybody would be very poor, because you would see – you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse.”
The 72-year-old maverick hit back as he faced misconduct claims over alleged pay-offs to Miss Daniels and Miss McDougal.
His former lawyer Michael Cohen, who admitted fraud, tax evasion and campaign violations on Tuesday, claimed he handed over the money.
Mr Cohen said Mr Trump authorised the payments after both women claimed to have had affairs with him before he entered politics. Crucially, he said under oath that he was directed to silence the women not for private reasons, but “for the principal purpose of influencing the election”.
The lawyer’s court appearance came after Mr Trump’s ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of eight financial criminal charges.
Mr Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis said afterwards that his client was willing to give evidence about Mr Trump’s alleged irregularities. The president could only be impeached after a trial process triggered by the House of Representatives but completed by the Senate.
Chuck Schumer, leader of the rival Democratic Party in the Senate, accused the president of being a “co-conspirator”.
Former Trump adviser Michael Caputo said the US was closer to impeaching its president than before Mr Cohen’s convictions.
He said the November mid-term elections would show whether or not the American public wanted Mr Trump to remain in the White House.
Mr Caputo said: “This is all about impeachment. It always has been.
“If they vote for a Democratic member of the House Representatives or a challenger, they’re voting for impeachment.”
In his interview with Fox’s Ainsley Earhardt, the president said he deserved an “A+” for putting the country on its feet and took controversy in his stride.
Mr Trump said: “My whole life has been this way. I have always had controversy in my life and I’ve always succeeded – I have always won.
“I was controversial when I ran and I won. Now the country is doing better than it has ever done. We have the best economy that we have ever had in the history of our country.”
The president had already admitted knowing about the payments but claimed he only found out after they were made. Crucially, he claimed the payments were made to avoid private embarrassment – not to infl uence the outcome of the election.
He told Ms Earhardt: “He [Mr Cohen] made the deals. They didn’t come out of the campaign, they came from me.”
Observers believe no action will be taken before the mid-term elections and are sceptical that the Democrats will go as far as attempting impeachment.
However, Mr Cohen could cause further embarrassment for the president by testifying to the inquiry into his alleged collusion with Russia during the election campaign.
