How Trump may imperil his presidency by firing Mueller ahead of mid-terms

President Donald Trump risks plunging his administration into political calamity ahead of a crucial midterm election and deepening his legal jeopardy if he takes the drastic step of firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

A decision to remove the man investigating his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia could paralyse his administration, alienate some of his supporters and force even Republican allies in Congress to either tie themselves to the president or abandon him.

In that instance, Democrats almost surely would amplify the drumbeat toward impeaching Trump -- so far mostly the province of the party’s liberal flank -- and if Trump persisted in precipitating a constitutional crisis, even some Republicans might join the call to remove him.

Trump denied in a Thursday morning Twitter post that he’d wanted to fire Mueller late last year. "If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him. Just more Fake News from a biased newspaper!"