Donald Trump's first tweet following his acquittal showed it may be a frustrating few months for Democrats ahead of the US election later this year.
The tweet was an animation of a fake TIME Magazine cover with signs saying 'TRUMP 2024', 'TRUMP 2028' and onward, going up to 'TRUMP 2048'.
That number then rises dramatically into the tens of thousands, before ending on 'TRUMP 4EVA'.
The cocky response shows Trump isn't backing down after the impeachment and subsequent acquittal in the Senate.
In the wake of the historic decision, Trump also blasted Republican Mitt Romney after the Utah senator voted against him on one of his impeachment charges.
Republican senators voted largely in lockstep to acquit Trump, relying on a multitude of rationales for keeping him in office: He's guilty, but his conduct wasn't impeachable; his July telephone conversation with Ukraine's president was a "perfect call"; there's an election in 10 months and it's up to voters to determine his fate.
For Trump, there was one overriding message to draw from his acquittal: Even at a time of maximum political peril, it's his Republican Party.
One day after Trump avoided talk of impeachment in his State of the Union address and argued that he had delivered on his 2016 campaign promises, the president already was moving to use impeachment as a 2020 rallying cry.
Trump tweeted after the vote that he would mark his acquittal with a statement at noon Thursday to "discuss our Country's VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!"
The president's allies sent giddy tweets needling his accusers and Democrats.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., released a video of him tearing up the impeachment articles. And White House social media director Dan Scavino tweeted an animated GIF of Trump dancing.
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Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and a senior White House aide, said in a post: "This factional fever and incoherent, ill-conceived process has finally ended and the President has rightfully been acquitted. It is time for our Country to move forward. Together."
The White House issued a statement following Trump's acquittal.
Here it is in full:
Today, the sham impeachment attempt concocted by Democrats ended in the full vindication and exoneration of President Donald J. Trump. As we have said all along, he is not guilty. The Senate voted to reject the baseless articles of impeachment, and only the President's political opponents – all Democrats, and one failed Republican presidential candidate – voted for the manufactured impeachment articles.
In what has now become a consistent tradition for Democrats, this was yet another witch-hunt that deprived the President of his due process rights and was based on a series of lies. Rep. Adam Schiff lied to Congress and the American people with a totally made up statement about the President's phone call. Will there be no retribution? Speaker Nancy Pelosi also lied to the American people about the need to swiftly pass impeachment articles they dreamt up, only to sit on them for a month before sending over to the Senate. In the Senate, the Democrats continued to make their political motivations clear – Rep. Schiff proclaimed the issues "cannot be decided at the ballot box" – proving once again they think they know better than the voters of this country. This entire effort by the Democrats was aimed at overturning the results of the 2016 election and interfering with the 2020 election.
Throughout this wholly corrupt process, President Trump successfully advanced the interests of the United States and remained focused on the issues that matter to Americans. He spent his time achieving real victories for the people of this country, and the Democrats – once again – have nothing to show for their fraudulent schemes. The President is pleased to put this latest chapter of shameful behavior by the Democrats in the past, and looks forward to continuing his work on behalf of the American people in 2020 and beyond.
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