President Trump’s removal from office, either by impeachment or through the voters, would not endanger America’s economy or trend of economic growth, a top official at Barclays said Thursday.
In a post on LinkedIn published Wednesday, the firm’s head of investment strategy in London wrote that economic growth has “little” to do with actions taken by or affecting the White House, thereby insulating markets from potential instability.
{mosads}”We doubt that capital markets would collapse if President Trump’s administration was endangered either electorally or indeed legally,” William Hobbs wrote.
“The forward momentum of the world economy, and therefore its capital markets, has little to do with the actions of the White House, past, present or future in our opinion,” he added.
Economic instability during upheaval in the terms of former Presidents Clinton and Nixon, Hobbs argued, was not caused by lawmakers’ movements against them but rather by broader economic uncertainty coinciding with the trials.
“Those who would look to the performance of capital markets during past comparable episodes for guidance will likely be disappointed,” Hobbs wrote.
Dozens of House Democrats have signed on to an effort to introduce articles of impeachment against the president, though the movement has gained little support among Democratic leadership.
“At this point in time it would be a distraction. There will be time for that,” Democatic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) told reporters in July.
“We need to get through this election; we need to deal with the economic issues; we need to deal with the health-care issues of the American people,” Hoyer added.
In April, Trump warned voters that a takeover of the House or Senate by Democrats in November would result in impeachment proceedings.
“We have to keep the House because if we listen to Maxine Waters, she’s going around saying ‘We will impeach him,’ ” Trump told voters in Michigan.