According to odds from overseas sportsbooks, the likelihood that US president Donald Trump fails to end his term has been steadily rising.
Since winning the elections in early November the odds for his impeachment or his resignation were at 25 percent (+300), but now with President’s Trump’s sudden decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, bets that the US president will be fired have skyrocketed, according to media outlets across Europe, including U.K’s The Independent.
On Wednesday, bets on Trump’s being impeached during his first term of office rose from 2/1 (+200) to 4/6 (-150), a 60 percent chance, according to Lewis Davey, spokesman for the Irish betting site Paddy Power. In February, those odds were almost 48% (+110).
Shortly after the news broke on Tuesday, comparisons began to surface with former President Richard Nixon, who in 1973 dismissed the independent attorney forthe Watergate scandal, Archibald Cox. In 1974, a year before a congressional panel voted in favor of Nixon’s dismissal, he resigned.
According to Davey, the 4/6 figure is the closest bet sportsbooks have offeredfor Trump’s impeachment since his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and the most recent changes in numbers can be attributed to Comey’s dismissal.
In the hours after the announcement of Comey’sfiring, bets that Trump would have to leave office before the end of the year went from 9/1 (+900) to 3/1 (+300), according to British sportsbook Betfair.
Those odds, coupled with the poor numbers that Trump constantly gets in the polls has led some bettors to try to place bets of more than $ 125,000 according to Betfair.
However, online bets continue to be banned in much of the United States, so these sportsbooks numbers do not necessarily reflect the view of many Americans.
Supportfigures to president Trump are close to their lowest level since his inauguration, and Trump’s approval rate is currently at 54.2 percent, according to the latest data compiled by polling aggregator Real Clear Politics.
Trump’s Republican party controls both chambers of Congress, which reduces the chances of impeachment.
