What did Donald Trump do today?
He threatened violence and economic destruction if he were impeached.
Calls for Trump's impeachment have been getting louder, including from prominent conservatives, after he was accused under oath by his former "fixer" of participating in a criminal conspiracy to violate election laws. These are in addition to the many secret contacts--87 that have been revealed so far--that Trump campaign officials, including members of his own family, had with Russian operatives during that country's attack on the election that put Trump in power.
Today, his lawyer and spokesman Rudy Giuliani said that "the American people would revolt" if Trump were impeached. It's not the first time that Trump or someone on his payroll has suggested violence against political opponents: Trump himself told "the Second Amendment people" that only they could stop Hillary Clinton if he lost the election to her.
Trump also said, in a Fox News interview taped yesterday and released today, that the stock market would crash if he were impeached. Specifically, he said that "everybody would be very poor" if the markets were deprived of his "thinking."
So what?
- Threatening the safety and well-being of their country if they are removed from power is what authoritarians do.
- Innocent people don't usually have to warn people about how bad things will get if anyone challenges them.
- A president who assumes "everybody" has money in the stock market either doesn't know much about the U.S. economy or doesn't care about the people who don't.