Bob Schwartz

“Après moi, le déluge” (“After me, the flood”)
King Louis XV of France, predicting the disaster that would follow his overthrow

Today, Trump predicted what will happen if he is removed from office:

“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.”

The same day, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani offered an even more dire prediction:

“The American people would revolt if Trump were impeached.”

Usually, Trump and Rudy are the Tweedledee and Tweedledum of mendacious and idiotic nonsense. In this case, though, while one of them is as ridiculously wrong as ever, one of them may actually have a point.

If Trump’s departure had any effect one way or the other on the market and the economy, it would likely be a boost, as the majority of Americans would be giddily celebrating.

Rudy also means to be apocalyptically strategic, like Louis XV. But Rudy, in his own un-American and seditious way, may be on to something.

We don’t know exactly how many die hard Trump supporters there are, ones who believe unconditionally in his leadership no matter what happens or is uncovered. It may be 10%, 20% or 30% of Americans. The exact percentage doesn’t matter. Even if it is “only” 10%, that is still tens of millions of people—often unreasonably committed people.

For those people, Trump’s removal would be seen as final proof that this country is rigged and moving in the worst possible direction. Even if you reduce the percentage, and get down to just a few million Americans, do you doubt the possibility that those people might try to set America back on the right track by taking matters into their own hands?