TRUMP WANTS TO GRAB THE LIMELIGHT AFTER GOP ACQUITS HIM

Donald Trump took in the win at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by friends and family. His lawyers celebrated with hugs and smiles. One joked, “We’re going to Disney World!”

Now acquitted in his second Senate impeachment trial, Trump is preparing for the next phase of his post-presidency life. Feeling emboldened by the trial’s outcome, he is expected to reemerge from a self-imposed hibernation at his club in Palm Beach, Florida, and is eyeing ways to reassert his power, Jill Colvin reported for the Associated Press (AP).

But after being barred from Twitter, the former president lacks the social media bullhorn that fueled his political rise. And he’s confronting a Republican Party deeply divided over the legacy of his jarring final days in office, culminating in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.

Searing video images of the day played on loop during his impeachment trial, which ended Saturday.

Trump remains popular among the GOP base, but many Republicans in Washington have cooled to him. Never before have so many members of a president’s party — seven GOP senators, in his case — voted for his removal in a Senate trial.

Moreover, his approval rating is down in the dumps at 34% when he fled the White House and abandoned his zealots attacking the US Capitol. Some may work to counter efforts by Trump to support extreme candidates in next year’s congressional primaries.

Undeterred, friends and allies expect Trump to resume friendly media interviews after weeks of silence.

He has met with political aides to discuss efforts to help Republicans try to take control of the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms elections.

He remains fixated on exacting revenge on Republicans who supported his impeachment or resisted his efforts to overturn the results of the November election won by Democrat Joe Biden. In a statement after the vote, Trump offered few clues, but was defiant as he told supporters their movement “has only just begun.”

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