QUESTION: I know you do not support Trump as an individual. It seems most Americans cannot look at this political crisis as detached as you do. They seem to think anything that says Trump is correct is interpreted as total support for Trump. From the other side of the pond, it looks like Americans have lost their minds. Is it some virus?
The real question is more self-interest as you say, Adam Smith. Do you think Trump’s fall will impact our markets in Europe as well beyond the United States?
JF, Frankfurt
ANSWER: People do not separate Trump the Individual from the President. They seem to think you can just chase him out of office and everything will be fine. This seems to be the brain-dead view on the Hill. But that is their self-interest speaking. They see Trump as an outsider and from that view they just want him gone and that includes many Republicans as well as Democrats. This crazy OP_ED illustrates the point. People hate Trump so much they look the other way entirely! This is very dangerous, to say the least. This view that if we just drive Trump from office everything will be back to normal is insane. We have crossed the Rubicon. There is no going back.
My concern is the OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY, not Trump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Those who are so blind that they cannot distinguish between the two, that is what is really frightening. The way law is made is PRECEDENT. No president has ever been indicted and the question has been regarded as never decided. If you press this issue because you hate Trump, you then create the precedent that any president can be indicted and then you have destroyed the office of the Presidency. You will have to be crazy or purely corrupt where you own everyone as insurance to ever seek such an office. This is not good for the nation regardless who is in office. The Constitution forbids the arrest of any person in Congress on their way to the Hill. The Founding Fathers understood that you could arrest a member to prevent him from voting. The same principle applies to the President. This would be a case of first impression.
There is absolutely NO POSSIBLE WAY that Trump can be removed from office and there will not be a major disruption to the world financial markets. Removing Nixon set off the chaos of the 70s into the collapse in confidence of government that led right into 1980. Perhaps the fall of Trump is the final straw that brakes the confidence in government bonds. Certainly, career politicians will not curtail debt and they will probably increase it more. Interest rates will rise, that is certain and replacing the head of any state results in caution at the very least. Capital can just give up and run for the hills into equity and start selling government debt.
If we undermine the CONFIDENCE in the US government, with the rest of the world in a state of chaos, perhaps this is what the computer is projecting which honestly scares the hell out of me. We are opening a door that is not going to lead to a nice safe place. The future is absolutely not going to return to normal. Just not going to happen. What comes next? Authoritarianism? Historically, that is what follows. The People of Athens voted for Pericles. The Oligarchs hated him. They trumped up charges to put him on trial. They won and destroyed Athenian Democracy. Perhaps history will repeat?
