Should Trump Be Scared This Time?

Jan Techau of the German Marshall Fund explained to BILD: "The statements of his former lawyer Cohen will considerably increase the pressure on Trump. This is someone who belonged to the inner circle of Trump's apparatus, and who has detailed insights into the 'Trump System'. How serious this will get depends mainly on the members of the Congress."

But it is unlikely his own party will turn against him, says Techau: “How many Republicans in Washington would start to distance themselves from Trump because their proximity to the president is becoming too dangerous? An impeachment remains unlikely. Impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. And Republicans coming out in large numbers to accuse and condemn a president from their own ranks in an extremely grueling trial remains unlikely.”

(However, James Davis, expert on the U.S. at St. Gallen University, is just as certain that Trump will be confronted by Cohen’s statements for a long time: “These allegations will plague the president until the end of his term of office.”)

Techau assumes that it will not be long before Trump reacts: “Of course, he’ll go straight to the counter-attack. Obviously we’re really scraping the barrel now, and that doesn’t leave him and his apparatus cold. It’s now a matter of political survival!”