The US president's rhetoric threatens to undermine the market's most important underpinning: the rule of law.
The US executive branch has seen a lot in the past couple of centuries: assassinations, resignations, contested elections. But what would happen if the president was voted out of office and refused to leave?
That’s what traders and investors asked themselves this week, after US president Donald Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses in November. He claims that mail-in voting, which is likely to surge because of the pandemic, is subject to fraud—even as the FBI director said this week that there isn’t any evidence of a concerted effort to rig the election.
US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News there will be “an orderly transfer of power,” and the Senate passed a resolution by unanimous consent to show support for a peaceful transition.
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