Impeachment troubles the president’s team on several levels. For one, it would divert Trump from the core economic message that Republican operatives want him to deliver as his reelection bid intensifies. If cable news is covering it, Trump will be watching, tweeting, and talking about it. What’s more, some of the president’s outside advisers worry that a motivated corps of Democratic investigators, armed with subpoena power, might unearth disturbing new material. In his nearly two-year-long probe, Special Counsel Robert Mueller stayed within a distinct set of guardrails, sticking to contacts between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign and possible obstruction of justice on Trump’s part. A Democratic-led impeachment probe could be more wide-ranging, venturing into private business dealings that Trump deems off-limits.

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“I don’t think the president has done anything criminal in nature, but you go through 40 years of someone’s business activities, and there might be some things that don’t look so great in hindsight,” Chris Ruddy, a friend of Trump’s and the CEO of the conservative news outlet Newsmax, told me. “I personally believe the impeachment thing is a grave danger.”

Impeachment is nothing Trump wants in any event, people close to him say, believing that even a failed attempt would be an indelible stain. “I don’t think any reasonable person wants to be impeached,” said Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana in an interview. But if it is that serious a concern for the president, he hasn’t mobilized his White House to counter the possibility with any gusto. (One White House official said it would be a mistake to draw conclusions from the lack of proactive planning. It’s more a sign of chronic disorganization in the West Wing than anything else, said this person, who, like others I talked to for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk more freely about internal dynamics.)

Should the Democrats open impeachment proceedings, Republicans insist they won’t be flat-footed. They would try to undermine the case by flagging what they see as hypocritical behavior on the part of Democratic lawmakers leading the fight. One Trump-campaign adviser cited House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, who, according to a recent Politico report, has tried to convince Pelosi that impeachment is necessary.

Back in 1998, when congressional Republicans sought to force Democratic President Bill Clinton from office, Nadler embraced some of the same arguments the GOP is making today about why impeachment should be avoided. In remarks recorded in the Congressional Record two decades ago, Nadler said, “There must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment supported by one of our major political parties and opposed by another.” What Nadler said then is at odds with what many pro-impeachment Democrats argue now: that impeachment is justified even if Senate Republicans band together to prevent the two-thirds majority vote needed to convict. “We’re going to be able to highlight some of the past statements and conflicting views of Jerry Nadler from two decades ago and today,” the Trump-campaign adviser said.