After Senate acquittal, Trump goes to 'war' and lays down the law for allies and enemies alike

President tells reporters as 'Chopper Talk' returns: 'Everyone is a threat'

Mr Trump in the White House celebrating acquittal 6 February 2020 (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump stormed into the White House's East Room and described himself as a wartime president. For over an hour, he was on the attack. He lashed out at political enemies. He cursed. He flashed his anger. And he let Republican lawmakers know he owns them.

Fresh off his acquittal by Senate Republicans, Mr Trump was more than defiant on Thursday. He was vindictive. He ranted and rambled. He challenged Speaker Nancy Pelosi's faith - at a prayer breakfast. Democrats are "evil" and "vicious," led by a "horrible person" in Ms Pelosi. He was unapologetic. But more than anything, he was Peak Trump as he called out "friend" after "friend", meaning those who helped him avoid removal. "I call them friends because you know, you develop friendships and relationships when you're in battle and war, much more so than 'gee, let's have a normal situation'." To Mr Trump, it's all war. He told reporters Friday during the year's first edition of "Chopper Talk" – his infamous gaggles over the idling engines of Marine One – "everyone is a threat".

As Democrats muddled from Iowa to New Hampshire with no clear frontrunner – and unease among party elites that that person is self-described socialist Bernie Sanders, the uber-liberal Vermont senator – Mr Trump victoriously held up newspaper front pages with war type-sized headlines declaring he had been acquitted. He looked like a prize fighter proudly displaying a championship belt he had just gone 12 rounds to retain.

The impeached-and-acquitted president sent message after message to the Republican lawmakers sitting notably close to his lectern in the ornate room. After surviving only the third Senate impeachment trial in the country's history, the Republican Party is in his control.

"Can you imagine? I'm interviewing people for the United States Senate. This is what I do. Where have I gone? But I love it. I love it because we're getting great people," Mr Trump said, going on to make an example of Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.

The leader of the Republican Party noted the first potential GOP candidate for the seat he met with was Mr Hawley, who had been the state's attorney general. And he reminded the senator he was hand-picked by the occupant of the Oval Office: "The first one I met was Josh Hawley. After about 10 minutes, I said to the people, 'Don't show me anybody else. This is the guy.'"

Translation: My guy.

Mr Trump, known for exaggeration, sounded as if he believed his own contention that Democrats are so "sick" they would try to oust just about any president who hailed from another political party.

"You could be George Washington, you could have just won the [Revolutionary] War, and they'd say, 'Let's get him out of office,'" Trump said. "They're vicious as hell."

From the moment he made the walk so many previous commanders in chief have made down the red carpet in the Grand Foyer and through the double brown doors into the East Room, Mr Trump was there to declare war on Democrats – anyone else who had dared to investigate his possible wrongdoing.

"We've been going through this now for over three years. It was evil. It was corrupt. It was dirty cops. It was leakers and liars. And this should never, ever happen to another president, ever," Mr Trump said before yet again selling himself as something of a tougher-than-all-the-rest political gladiator.

His conservative base loves his brash bravado, unique in modern American history.

"I don't know that other presidents would have been able to take it. Some people said, 'No, they wouldn't have'," the president said. "But I can tell you, at a minimum you have to focus on this because it can get away very quickly no matter who you have with you. It can get away very quickly. It was a disgrace."

One Republican former Illinois GOP congressman, who until Friday morning was challenging the incumbent in the party's primary, says something has gotten away. The Republican Party. And he says Mr Trump did the taking, with Thursday something of a coronation.

Joe Walsh said he concluded Mr Trump is a "threat" to the country but cannot be defeated from "within the Republican Party". Why? "It's Trump's party," told CNN. "It's not a party. It's a cult."

Michael Steel, a former aide to then-Speaker John A Boehner and an one-time adviser to Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign, said Mr Trump's Thursday antics amounted to him taking "two steps forward and one-and-a-half steps back".

Still, in that uniquely Trumpian way, backed by Democrats' continued stumbles, Mr Trump likely gained ground in his re-election fight. That's because "the Democrats look like the gang that can't shoot straight. Overall, a strong kick-off week for the 2020 election for Team Trump," Mr Steel said on Friday. As he left the White House, Mr Trump mocked Democrats, wondering aloud how voters could trust them to run the country when they can't even pull off a primary caucus.

One Democratic strategist acknowledged "this was not a great week" for his party.

"The Iowa Caucus debacle was a giant wake-up call for Democrats and must be rectified with urgency and never repeated. The acquittal was 100 percent predicted, but the news was Mitt Romney breaking [with Mr Trump] and Democrats staying unified – that will last forever," the Democratic strategist added with a word of caution: "For 2020, we are only at the starting gate. The four early states – combined – only award 4 percent of the delegates to the convention. Long way to go. Buckle up."

By Friday morning, CNN and other outlets were reporting Mr Trump was ready to green-light yet another West Wing purge. On the chopping block? Those he holds responsible for his impeachment and others who offered damaging testimony about his actions towards Ukraine and alleged use of taxpayer-funded military hardware as leverage to get a leg up on his top domestic political rivals.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who helped lead his Ukraine push, and Army Lt Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's too Ukraine expert, were reportedly in the path of the Trump bulldozer that levied many a political foe on Thursday.

Trump told reporters Mr Mulvaney is staying put. But he signalled the Army officer soon could have a new assignment as he seeks to pay back those he felt wronged him during the impeachment drama.

Still, a sign of Mr Trump's growing confidence and perhaps increased power post-acquittal is the uptick in foes describing him as a "king" or "monarch".

That feeling is felt more acutely among Washington Democrats, who have been more willing to charge Mr Trump with behaving like a monarch. They warn he's now unrestrained following his acquittal – and more willing to test America's traditional legal and political guardrails.

"We are witnessing the coronation of Trump," Democratic Senator Mazie Horono told reporters during the chamber's impeachment trial after Republicans blocked her party's attempts to call witnesses, "with Mitch McConnell holding the crown, and the Republicans holding his train."

That's why Mr Walsh said he intends to support the Democratic nominee – even if that person is far out of line with his conservative ideology. "I would rather have," he said, "a socialist in the White House than a dictator, than a king, than Donald Trump."

In a sign of he has no intention of quelling such feelings, the newly emboldened president said this of Pelosi tearing up his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night: "She broke the law."

More and more, and with his party's full support, that's Mr Trump's law.