Acquitted, Trump will remain a threat
He is not dead to politics or to run again in the 2024 elections. The Senate's acquittal of former president Donald Trump is tantamount to a relaunch of his political career, shows that the Republican Party belongs to him more than ever and encourages the polarisation of the country. Only seven Republican senators condemned the 45th president of the United States for "incitement to insurrection", resulting in the storming of the Capitol in Washington, the seat of legislative power, looting and the deaths of five people. Ten more senators would have been needed to reach the 67 necessary to convict the second impeachment of a single president in the history of the country.
Instead of certifying his political death, the US Senate may have given him the impetus to make a comeback, and the now rested golfer Donald Trump has already let it slip: "Our magnificent historic and patriotic 'Make America Great Again' movement has just begun. We have a lot to share in the coming months, and I can't wait to continue our incredible adventure. A proclamation, as soon as the verdict of acquittal is known, that he is waving as a true victory, and will surely be recognised as such by the many millions of supporters who are still convinced that the Democrats "stole" the election victory from him. It is not insignificant that the polls still insist today that of the 74 million votes Trump won, 66% believe this to be true.
The seriousness of the tensions that are looming was made clear by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, the strongest instigator of the impeachment process against Trump, even though she had already left the White House. Without hiding her fury, Pelosi called Trump's acquittal "one of the darkest days and one of the most dishonourable acts" in the history of the United States, not without launching a strident adjective of "cowards" to the senators of the Republican Party, hiding behind the formalism of the alleged unconstitutionality of judging a president, "not to condemn someone who incites an insurrection that kills people on Capitol Hill".
Surely Pelosi, when she launched such an accusation of cowardice, had in mind, among others, the head of the Republicans in the Senate, the old fox Mitch McConnell, who in a display of political experience made Trump "morally responsible for the events of 6 January", on the grounds that "the most powerful man on the planet had stuffed those who stormed the Capitol with lies". This demand was backed up by his vote in favour of acquittal on the grounds of the Senate's alleged incompetence to try a former president. The veteran senator from Kentucky does not seem willing to give up his seat, and even plays with the possibility of Trump returning to the limelight and counting on him.
It is clear that the Republican Party comes out of this debate badly wounded, so that the tightening of the ranks that it exhibited during Trump's term could have ended in disbandment had the Senate condemned him. Since this has not happened, it is foreseeable that the 'traitors', i.e. those who voted in favour of impeachment, will suffer the anathema of the most pro-Trump conservatives. The purge will surely be immediate, and among the first victims will undoubtedly be Congresswoman Jamie Herrera Butler, one of the ten House of Representatives voters in favour of impeaching Trump, and the propagator of the highly charged conversation between Trump himself and the head of the Republican ranks in the lower house, Kevin McCarthy.
If Trump's leadership, bolstered by his second acquittal, is consolidated in the Republican Party, the party will predictably take a turn towards ultra-conservative extremism. Much good will have to be done by the current Joe Biden-Kamala Harris presidential tandem to put back on track the traditional values that built America's greatness and enormous "soft power" in the world. They have just two years to do so, until the mid-term elections, when the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be renewed. If they fail, a Trump, turned martyr of "the worst witch-hunt in American history", will also stand a good chance of becoming the 47th president of the United States.