Trump impeachment widens rift within Republican party

Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, makes history as the first US president to face two impeachment trials. On 13 January, seven days after Trump left the White House, the House of Representatives activated the procedure for a new "impeachment" against the Republican leader.

Trump is accused of "inciting insurrection" by provoking the Capitol riots, which shocked the world with images as surreal as they were Dantesque. While the trial may no longer result in Trump's impeachment, Democrats hope it will end in his disqualification from future political office.

The trial is not likely to have an easy resolution, as Trump has managed to completely divide the Republican party. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican to vote in favour of convicting the former president in his first impeachment trial, argued that the president had committed a crime and that the effort to try him even after he left office was a constitutional duty.

Despite the senator's words, other Senate Republicans made it clear that they opposed even the idea of a trial and would seek to dismiss the indictment before it began. Some have even gone further, with Senator Marco Rubio, R-Florida, calling a trial "stupid" and "counterproductive", comparing it to "taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on a fire."

For her part, Representative Madeleine Dean, a Pennsylvania Democrat and one of those in charge of the "impeachment" against Donald Trump, said she hoped the trial "would be quicker" than the one held in 2020, which dragged on for 21 days. 

Dean declined to say whether impeachment handlers would include a report provided by the New York Times accusing Trump of trying to fire the acting attorney general while in office in order to wield Justice Department power to force state lawmakers in Georgia to overturn his presidential election results.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney, too, wanted to make reference to this fact: "We're going to have a trial. I wish it weren't necessary, but the president's conduct with respect to the call to Secretary of State (Brad) Raffensperger in Georgia, as well as the incitement of insurrection that led to the attack on the Capitol, demands a trial".

Although the House of Representatives will take up the article of impeachment on Monday, Senate leaders agreed to delay the trial for two weeks in order to give the newly inaugurated president, Joe Biden, time to install his cabinet and Trump's team time to prepare a defence. Finally, the second impeachment trial against Donald Trump will formally begin the week of 8 February.

This trial is presented as an opportunity for the Republican party to disassociate itself from Trump's policies and return to a more conservative path. But the division within the party seems insurmountable, Trump has caused a wound, which does not seem to be easily healed, and a large part of the party has become radicalised. The impeachment will mark the way forward for the Republican party, which will have to decide which position will predominate: radicalism - the tactic it has followed until now - or returning to the path of a more conservative, less provocative narrative.