Donald Trump survived impeachment, but Mitt Romney's decision to break ranks will leave him raging
By North America correspondent
James Glenday
Updated yesterday at 11:23am
PHOTO: President Donald Trump and senator Mitt Romney have had a contentious relationship for years. (Reuters: Tom Brenner)
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For the first time in a long time, things are looking better for Donald Trump.
The historic impeachment proceedings have hung over his administration like a dark cloud, distracting the President from his day job and any positive news his team was trying to trumpet.
Of course, his acquittal is certainly no surprise.
But for the Commander-in-Chief to be
formally cleared of both charges in just a two-and-a-bit-week trial is as good a result as he could have reasonably expected, particularly considering the mountain of evidence against him.
PHOTO: Donald Trump was acquitted on two articles of impeachment by the US Senate. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)
Like it did for Bill Clinton, the President's public standing seems to have slightly inched up.
One pollster, Gallup, even put his approval rating at 49 per cent — the highest mark since he took office.
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Meanwhile, his Democratic opponents have been
consumed by the chaos surrounding the Iowa caucuses and are divided over who is the best candidate to face him at November's election.
The timing is particularly convenient for the President, who is being urged to redirect all his focus to the long campaign ahead.
Trump will still be white hot with rage
But before looking to the future, Mr Trump will have to move on from the trial just gone.
That might take him and his inner circle some time.
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VIDEO: Mitt Romney to vote for impeachment (ABC News)
The decision by Mitt Romney, the Utah senator and former presidential candidate, to break ranks and vote to convict will have left him raging, even if it ultimately didn't make a difference to the outcome.
The Commander-in-Chief had insisted all Republican senators back him and he'd hoped to be able to win over even one or two Democrats, so he could spruik his "bipartisan acquittal".
Mr Trump is not a man known for being able to let things go — he's already tweeted an attack video.
No doubt more is to come.
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Yet when future generations look at the compelling case against the President, they may well marvel that more than one of his colleagues didn't turn on him.
No independent observer could seriously say this impeachment push was all a "witch hunt" or a "hoax".
It's clear there was a broad plot within the Trump administration to improperly pressure Ukraine to announce two investigations that could have helped the President at the 2020 election.
PHOTO: Donald Trump was impeached over a phone call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked for a "favour". (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)
The extent of Mr Trump's direct involvement is still not known, but even a few Republicans who voted to acquit say he acted inappropriately.
Your cheat sheet for Trump's articles of impeachment
We've annotated important phrases to help explain the key events and people that led to this moment.
Effectively, they are conceding their President tried to use the power of his office, in part, for personal gain.
Alaskan senator Lisa Murkowski declared Mr Trump's behaviour was "shameful and wrong", while Tennessee's Lamar Alexander said he hoped the President had learned a lesson and would not repeat his "inappropriate actions".
However, there's no obvious sign the Commander-in-Chief is chastened by his experience.
Were he to do much the same thing again, it also seems unlikely that his Republican colleagues would be willing to censure him.
Democrats could be fumbling their opportunity
Amid this backdrop, conventional political wisdom suggests the Democratic Party should have a serious shot at knocking off the first-term President.
They've had three years to find the perfect candidate, but as the Iowa caucuses show, the party is still divided on who that is.
PHOTO: The Iowa Democratic caucuses were a disaster after the app used to count votes failed. (Reuters: Randall Hill)
The early favourite, former vice-president Joe Biden, has stumbled.
Young mayor Pete Buttigieg has exceeded expectations, while Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, is also well and truly in the mix.
The split vote suggests the primary campaign could be a long and bruising process, a potentially damaging battle the President's allies would welcome.
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Although the stunning technological failures in Iowa have taken much of the attention, voter turnout in the state is also a worrying sign for the Democrats.
They were hoping for 2008 levels of enthusiasm — the year Barack Obama won the nomination about 240,000 voters turned up.
Instead, this week the party got numbers more akin to 2016, when Hillary Clinton was the presumptive nominee.
PHOTO: Iowa's caucuses to pick the Democratic nominee were thrown into chaos when an app designed to count the votes failed. (Reuters: Brian Snyder)
If that trend continues, there could be problems down the track: to beat this President, they need all potential Democratic voters to show up to the polls.
Trump is an entertainer who energises his loyal followers
Because for all his faults, the Commander-in-Chief has a particular talent for enraging his opponents, while simultaneously engaging, entertaining and energising his base.
PHOTO: Tensions between Donald Trump and Democrats ran high during his State of the Union, with Nancy Pelosi ripping up a copy of his speech. (AP: Alex Brandon)
The
President's State of the Union address was a classic example of this.
At times it resembled an Oprah-style reality TV show: an African American girl got a scholarship; a military family was reunited and conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh received America's highest civilian honour.
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Mr Trump tried to use the speech to move the national debate beyond his impeachment and effectively fired the starting gun on his campaign for a second term — appealing to suburban and regional voters who could decide his fate.
Clear of the daily impeachment distractions, he will be free to repeat his talking points (some false, some exaggerated, some true) about trade, national security and immigration ad nauseam from now until November.
Republican strategists hope he can take credit for the country's relatively strong economy and, while his opponents are battling amongst themselves, gain a substantial lead in the race for the White House.
Trump is often his own worst enemy
The biggest short-term obstacle to that goal could be the President himself and perhaps his desire for retribution over his impeachment.
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Recent history has proven he is mostly incapable of staying focused on one issue and generally avoiding lurching from one controversy to the next.
It means that even though things are substantially better for him now than they were a week ago, the President remains well and truly beatable.
But to do that the Democrats need to get their act together. For them, the sooner that happens the better.
