United States President Donald Trump said in an interview aired Thursday that the US economy would collapse if he were impeached.
"I will tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking, you would see - you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe in reverse," Mr Trump told Fox and Friends.
The president was responding to a question on his mounting legal woes after his former attorney Michael Cohen said under oath that Mr Trump instructed him to commit a felony by breaking US campaign finance laws.
Mr Trump then launched into a rambling statement on job creation and other economic progress he said had been made during his presidency and insisted Americans would be much worse off if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 election.
"I don't know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job," he added.
Mr Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to six counts of fraud, and two counts of violating campaign finance laws - by making payments to silence women who alleged affairs with Mr Trump.
In a serious blow to the president, Mr Cohen detailed in court how he made the payments - believed to be porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal - and claimed he was acting at his boss's request.
Mr Trump has repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the payments at the time, while accepting they were made using his funds - to which Mr Cohen had access.
He was evasive when asked in the Fox News interview if he had instructed Mr Cohen to make the payments, saying that his former lawyer "made the deals," and insisted that Cohen's actions were "not a crime."
Michael Cohen leaves a hearing at United States Federal Court in New York Source: AAP
"Campaign violations are considered not a big deal, frankly," he said.
Mr Trump then said the hush payments were financed with his own money, to which Mr Cohen had access, and that while he had no knowledge of them at the time, he had since been fully transparent.
In the sit-down with Fox, he criticised his once close associate for "flipping", saying it "almost ought to be outlawed".
