If the economy tanks, Trump is toast. Complete toast. And he knows it.
He might not be the most brilliant idiot to grace the oval thingy, but anyone can see that a recession would destroy his base.
If Trump was a normal president, he’d be at like 75% popularity — the economy is doing well (well, for the rich people anyway, and who doesn’t want to be rich?). The only reason he’s not is that he’s a disgusting irredeemable moron. He knows like everyone else — Bush Jr slouched out of office with what, like 25% approval? That’s Trump’s real base. Maybe lower, because he’s Trump. Yes, they’re loud and obnoxious, but there really aren’t that many of them.
A larger number of Trump’s 40ish% approval are only with him because their 401Ks and IRAs are looking good. My entire family is in this boat (well, most of them would blame any crash on rampant socialism, but that’s another story). If the economy tanks, they’re outta here.
The whole thing is like an elephant in the room — Democrats don’t want to talk about it, because it kinda makes Trump look good. Republicans don’t want to talk about it because it’s totally pathetic — the only reason they tolerate the guy is because $.
So, what the hell is Trump supposed to do if things really do head for the loo? What problem could he fix? End Abortion? Build that wall? Better yet — make Mexico pay for it? Release his sparkling clean tax and business history? Lift 100 pounds right up over his head?
All of those are nutso right-wing fantasies. Which means they have a chance of happening, at least from the perspective of the Fox-o-verse. “Didja see Trump lift that thing? OMG!!1”
What could Trump actually fix? well, maybe a problem he created in the first place. Bluntly — Announce that we just got a “great deal” from China, and the tariffs are history. It won’t matter what the deal actually is — it won’t matter at all. Because Trump’s base is going to get the story from Fox, and it’ll be the most amazing deal evah! You can bet your life on it. It might say each person in the contiguous 48 must donate a pint of blood with every direct-from-ChinAmazon purchase, and it’ll be praised as “sending american blood to conquer the Chinese”. They’ll eat it up. The farmers will smile.
Who would possibly want to impeach such an amazing deal-maker like this!!!?!?
Anyway, this is almost too easy to predict. How and when it’ll play out, who knows.