The US Senate acquitted Donald Trump on Saturday February 13 after his second impeachment trial.
Even if the suspense was almost zero, the acquittal is obviously a relief for Donald Trump.
In the short term, this vote gives him the opportunity to take up one of his favorite campaign arguments: to pose as a martyr, the victim of an incessant "witch hunt".
The only president in history to be indicted twice, he is also the only one to have been acquitted twice.
"This can be a rallying cry: to hammer home that he has been targeted by the left and by the press, in an unfair way," said Capri Cafaro, former Democrat and teacher at American University.
Reacting to the Senate verdict, Donald Trump seemed to set a date for the future.
"Our magnificent, historic and patriotic movement, Make America Great Again, is just beginning," he said.
More complicated equation
But the equation, which worked during his four years in power, has become more complicated since the dark day of January 6 and the violence perpetrated by his supporters.
Many Republican officials have distanced themselves, which constitutes a major handicap in view of a possible reconquest even if its ability to galvanize the crowds remains a major asset.
Without an elected mandate, deprived of his Twitter account, reclusive in his golf club in Mar-a-Lago, more than 1,300 kilometers from Washington, he could also find it difficult to make his voice heard.
Especially since the next presidential deadline of 2024 is already whetting appetites.
One of the possible contenders for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, has already cut ties and felt he was out of the game for the upcoming deadlines.
"He took a path that he shouldn't have taken, and we shouldn't have followed him and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we must never let it start again."
Republican Party, the big building site
After being lined up - sometimes reluctantly but always obediently - behind Donald Trump for four years, the Grand Old Party is going through a period of immense upheaval.
A handful of elected officials cry out loud and clear that Donald Trump's place cannot be questioned and that he is the natural candidate for 2024.
"This party is his. It does not belong to anyone else", launched a few days ago the elected Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has time supported the theses of the far-right conspiratorial movement QAnon.
But many party leaders want a new start.
Confronted with his polls which remain flattering for Donald Trump, they wonder how to turn the page: Brutally?
Slowly ?
Imperceptibly?
Beyond the trauma of January 6, the party holds it responsible for the loss of the Senate: its refusal to accept its defeat for more than two months has placed the "GOP" in a wobbly position during the two opening partial senators January, won by the Democrats.
Towards a new center-right party?
There remains a worrying point for party strategists: support for Trump during his impeachment trial, guided by the desire not to anger the ex-president, could have an electoral cost.
"Senators who voted for acquittal may have protected themselves against perilous primaries in the face of more extreme candidates within their party, but they also made themselves more vulnerable in real elections," said Wendy Schiller, Brown University.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell voted to acquit, hiding behind questions of law.
But to immediately declare that Donald Trump is "in fact" and "morally" responsible for the violence of January 6.
A hundred former US officials have circulated the idea in recent days of the creation of a new center-right party that would bring together Republicans wishing to cut clean with Trumpism.
But the chances of breaking the American model, which has always been based around two parties, appear extremely slim.
With AFP
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