Trump news: President gloats over impeachment acquittal as White House trails ominous threat to make opponents ‘pay’

Vindictive White House 'victory' speech follows rally-like State of the Union as Democratic challengers prepare for New Hampshire

Mitt Romney to break from Republicans and vote to convict Trump on impeachment

Surrounded by his cheering allies at the White House, Donald Trump celebrated his acquittal in his impeachment trial after after appearing at the National Prayer Breakfast brandishing aloft newspaper front pages announcing Wednesday's landmark decision.

The president also used the occasion to attack House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Utah senator Mitt Romney, the lone Republican to vote "guilty" with Democrats after excoriating the president in the blistering Senate speech.

Wednesday's Senate vote on the two articles laid against him by the House of Representatives – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – was split largely along party lines with only Mr Romney daring to break ranks, denouncing the president’s “appalling abuse of public trust” in an emotional speech from the floor that earned him the ire of a vengeful Republican Party, with members calling for his expulsion and likening him to Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold.

At her weekly conference, Ms Pelosi criticised Mr Trump's rally-like State of the Union address as a "the compilation of falsehoods" and said she now-famously ripped up a copy of his speech to "clearly [indicate] to the American people that this is not the truth" as the president's allies applauded his remarks.

In preparation for his remarks, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham ominously told Fox News that Mr Trump planned to talk about “how horribly he was treated and that maybe people should pay for that”, suggesting a threatening remainder of his term in office following his opponents' failure to remove him. The White House also issued anti-Romney talking points attacking him as a self-serving politician with a history of flip-flopping.

Mr Trump called the Russia investigations against him as "bulls***" and attacked former FBI Director James Comey, among several targets in his address (Ms Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Robert Mueller, the FBI's "top scum" and "crookedest and most corrupt", among them).

The remarks went quickly off the rails, from reenacting the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise to praising Congressman Jim Jordan's looks, briefly addressed the leaked Access Hollywood tape in which he gloats about assaulting women, and leading standing ovations for his legal defence team and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Meanwhile, the results of the Iowa Caucus, the first state to host an election in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, are nearly complete, with 97 per cent of the vote totals showing a razor-thin delegate win for Pete Buttiegieg and a majority vote victory for Bernie Sanders, who collected more votes than his opponent.

Despite the vote totals being incomplete, Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez has pressured Iowa's party officials to review the results, following significant delays and inconsistencies after an app failure forced officials to review the vote totals manually.

The candidates are now campaigning in New Hampshire ahead of that state's primary on 11 February. The president will hold a rally in the state on 10 February.

Follow our coverage as it happened:

Key Points

• Trump cheers impeachment acquittal at National Prayer Breakfast
• White House hints president will say Dems 'should pay' at noon speech
• Nancy Pelosi: State of the Union 'not a backdrop for a reality show'
• Republicans round on Mitt Romney for breaking ranks to vote for conviction
• Trump supporters 'flooded Iowa caucus hotlines' to cause chaos

[6 February 2020 19:30 · Clark Mindock]

Here is some more from The Independent's Washington Bureau Chief, John T Bennett, on his lovely speech in the White House to mark his acquittal. 

[6 February 2020 19:45 · Clark Mindock]

As Trump gloats about his impeachment, here's where AOC's head is at...

[6 February 2020 20:00 · Clark Mindock]

Don Jr isn't taking a break from his trolling:

Nope.

Hm...

 

[6 February 2020 20:15 · Clark Mindock]

For anyone wondering, the husband of Kellyanne Conway is back to questioning whether the president is a a narcissist today:

[6 February 2020 20:30 · Clark Mindock]

It's at least a little surprising that the White House is letting Nancy Pelosi get under their skin on this one:

[6 February 2020 21:14 · Clark Mindock]

In Iowa, things are still a bit unclear.

That has led the DNC chairman, Tom Perez, to demand the Iowa Democratic Party recanvass the caucus results.

[6 February 2020 21:42 · Alex Woodward]

The president is launching an offensive against Mitt Romney following the Utah Senator's lone Republican "guilty" vote in his impeachment trial.

They've had an interesting public relationship, mostly consisting of them insulting each other until they need to win an election. A working relationship in the interest of party unity now seems off the table.

[6 February 2020 22:00 · Alex Woodward]

The Trump administration is punishing New Yorkers in retaliation for the city's so-called "sanctuary city" policies, which allow people without legal permission to be in the US to apply for driver's licences and prohibits the DMV from providing any of its data to entities that enforce immigration law unless a judge orders them to do so.

[6 February 2020 22:13 · Alex Woodward]

New York Attorney General Leticia James responds to the administration's anti-immigration efforts in the state, saying her office "resist efforts that cut off our access to Global Entry or any other Trusted Traveler Program".

[6 February 2020 22:41 · Alex Woodward]

We're closing down today's live coverage of the Trump administration.

Stay tuned with The Independent for more.