Trump warns against impeachment or 'markets will crash' and 'everyone will be poor'

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that stock markets would crash if he is impeached and commented on the Michael Cohen case, saying that cooperating with the government in exchange for a lighter sentence "almost ought to be illegal".

In an interview with the Fox News channel, Trump said: "If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor," adding that Americans would see economic "numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse".

"I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who's done a great job," he added. The president also gave his own presidency's performance so far an "A+" mark, claiming nobody had done what he had done before.

Former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to a New York court on Tuesday to breaking campaign finance laws and said he had acted at the request of a federal candidate, in what was believed to be a reference to Trump.

Cohen has not agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Russian meddling of the 2016 presidential election and the suspected collusion between Trump and Moscow. Nevertheless, he could still agree to share information with Mueller in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Trump accused Cohen of implicating him in order to get a better deal with prosecutors. He said Cohen was making up lies although the lawyer never used Trump’s name in court and always referred to him as the "candidate".

"It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal," Trump said. "It's not a fair thing, but that's why he did it. He made a very good deal."

In a separate trial, also on Tuesday, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of multiple charges and could face up to 80 years in prison.