‘The election could be over before any votes are cast’: AP reporter breaks down Trump’s recession fears

President Donald Trump's re-election campaign could be destroyed by a recession before a single vote is cast, an Associated Press reporter explained on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" on Monday.

Guest host John Heilemann read a quote from AP White House correspondent Jonathan Lemire.

"[P]rivately, Trump is growing increasingly worried the economy won’t look so good come Election Day. ... Though a pre-election recession here is far from certain, a downturn would be a devastating blow to the president, who has made a strong economy his central argument for a second term," Lemire reported. "And White House economic advisers see few options for reversing course should the economy start to slip."

"It’s a crazy thing. I’m older than you and I have been doing this for a while," Heilemann said. "I have rarely ever heard a White House acknowledge on background, on the record, off the record, 'we have no options, our hands are tied.'"

"Never heard that one before," he added.

"It was sort of striking, but that’s how they feel," Lemire replied. "First of all, they will argue the economy is doing better than we are giving credit. They say things are going to be fine, that right now this is a creation largely of cable news studios and some jitters on Wall Street, et cetera."

"Privately, there are some concerns, because they know this is a president who wedded himself to the fortunes of the stock market in an unprecedented way," he explained. "Presidents don’t do this because it’s so risky. Stock markets go up and then they go down."

And if there market goes down, the White House is admitting they don't have the ability to deal with it.

"This president does not like to see it ever go down and will not take responsibility for this. Even though Americans will see this and say you’re taking credit so you have to take some blame too," he explained. "They feel like there’s not going to be any real stimulus spending here. There’s not going to be an infrastructure plan. Infrastructure week has become literally a punchline. They already have an interest reserve rate cut. What’s out there is whether or not they can make some sort of trade deal happen."

"They feel like consumer spending will pick back up and that will be enough, but right now they know that if the economy continues to falter -- especially if it really slows down -- that could mean, this election could be over before any votes are cast next November," Lemire concluded.

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