It’s official, the US Senate has let President Donald Trump off the hook.
It was the widely expected outcome of the impeachment proceedings put forward by the Democractic-led House of Representatives on December 18.
Basically, Trump was accused of abusing his power when he supposedly requested Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden, a contender for the Democratic nomination to face Mr Trump in the 3 November election.
The Democrat-led House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump. The Senate -- which is dominated by Republicans -- then voted to acquit the president of all charges.
With the exception of one senator….
Former US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney stepped away from party lines. In a fairly controversial move, the republican senator joined the Democrats to convict the President of one article of impeachment, saying he is guilty of an "appalling abuse of public trust".
Mr Romney said it was the "most difficult decision I have ever faced" and he expected he would come in for harsh criticism from fellow Republicans. Yikes.
Donald Trump is now one of three US presidents to have survived an impeachment trial.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump celebrated on Twitter with an edited video showing animated campaign signs for his Presidency from years 2024 until the year 90,000....and then “4EVA”.
In just three hours it had 250,000 likes and 70,000 retweets.
TIME Magazine replied to this Tweet clarifying that it is a manipulated version of their October animated cover of TIME Magazine, accompanying an article exploring how “Trumpism” will outlast Trump himself.
The Tweet is in character for a president who has built a platform on rejected political norms. Twitter has been his chosen social media site to post controversial statements.
Posting this video is symbolic of what Democrats fear: that his acquittal will embolden a president who they see as a threat to US democracy.
For Trump, his acquittal hands him evidence that the impeachment was just an attempted coup and a Democratic attempt to annul his 2016 election victory.
Eitherway, it has cleared Trump’s path to contend for the presidency at this year’s November election.
