What's next for Trump now that impeachment is over

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, basking in his acquittal on two articles of impeachment, also conceded this past week that the controversies and political fights that have defined his first year in office were far from over.

“I’m sure they’ll try and cook up other things,” Trump said in a White House speech, accusing congressional Democrats of looking for further reasons to investigate his dealings. “They’ll go through the state of New York. They'll go through other places. They'll do whatever they can.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has countered that Democrats will press ahead with their legislative agenda, but will “continue to do our oversight to protect and defend the Constitution.”

As Trump pivots from fighting off impeachment charges to fighting for his reelection — the first president to do so having been impeached — he will face both long-standing challenges and new tests in the nine months until Election Day, including:

Unfinished probes

Trump continues to face House investigations into his financial dealings and policy decisions that started months before the impeachment inquiry was launched in September.

Several of those cases remain tied up in the courts, as Trump has refused to turn over relevant documents and blocked administration officials from testifying, but at least three of the cases are expected to be heard by the Supreme Court in the spring.

The president is also fighting in court to block New York State-led investigations into his finances.

Trump on Thursday acknowledged the multiple investigations were far from over, saying if Democrats “find that I happen to walk across the street and maybe go against the light or something, let’s impeach him. So we’ll probably have to do it again, because these people have gone stone cold crazy.”

Trump must also contend with the expected March 17 release of former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s tell-all book, which could continue to provide a steady drip of information about Trump’s order to withhold military aid to Ukraine, and other controversial foreign policy decisions.

Pelosi indicated on Thursday that House Democrats have “no plans right now” to subpoena Bolton for testimony. But Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, suggested there was support among the caucus for calling on Bolton to appear before the House, after the Republican-majority Senate voted against compelling Bolton to testify during the Senate trial.

“When you have a lawless president, you have to bring that to the fore. You have to spotlight that,” Nadler told reporters on Capitol Hill. “You have to protect the Constitution, whatever the political consequences.”

Pelosi, speaking to reporters at a Thursday news conference said the caucus would remain focused on the current set of court battles aimed at getting the Trump Administration to comply with subpoenas into his financial records. House Democrats have also been seeking the underlying documents from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and fighting to force the testimony of former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who was the most cited Trump official in the Mueller report.

House Democrats are also fighting in court for records related to other Trump policy decisions, such as the Commerce Department’s attempt to insert a citizenship question into the 2020 census.

“We have some cases in court now, If there are others we see as an opportunity, we’ll make a judgment at that time, but we have no plans right now,” Pelosi said when asked about the possibility of subpoenaing Bolton.

Partisan rancor

Trump’s State of the Union address called for bipartisan cooperation on a number of issues that have support from members of both sides of the aisle — including legislation to lower prescription drug prices — but tensions remain high between Trump and Pelosi, and passing new legislation in a presidential election year has historically been difficult to achieve.

Following a State of the Union showdown that featured Trump refusing to shake Pelosi’s hand, and Pelosi shredding pages of his speech, the two have since publicly suggested there may be room to negotiate.

“What we can do working with both parties in Congress is — would be unbelievable,” Trump said in a post-impeachment speech at the White House on Thursday.

Asked if he could work with Democrats, Trump told reporters on Friday: “I do work with Democrats. I work with everybody.”

Pelosi, asked by reporters Thursday about the likelihood of working with Trump in the coming months, noted that amid the impeachment proceedings, House Democrats “worked together” with the White House to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and to pass a spending bill that averted another government shutdown.

“Well, we have had a strained relationship for a while and we were able to keep government open,” Pelosi said, adding that “there’s no such thing as eternal animosity ... you never know of what cause you may come together with someone you may perceive as your foe right now. Everybody is a possible ally in whatever comes next.”

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), a veteran of the Bill Clinton impeachment proceedings, said despite the high tensions between Trump and Pelosi, there may be room for some compromise legislation to pass.

“I think both sides, if they want to, can at least work out compromises … to at least show the attempt is going to be made,” King said.

An electorate split on impeachment

National polls conducted throughout the course of the House impeachment proceedings and Senate trial indicate that the majority of voters believe Trump abused his powers and acted inappropriately in his dealings with Ukraine, but were split along party-lines about whether those actions merited removal from office.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday found that 43% of those polled supported the Republican-led Senate’s decision to acquit Trump on two articles of impeachment, compared to 41% who opposed the acquittal and 17% who said they were undecided.

Asked about Trump’s acquittal, 48% of those polled said Trump is “probably guilty” of the impeachment charges, while 39% said they believed Trump was “probably innocent.”

In 15 key battleground states, voters were deadlocked at 49% both for and against impeaching Trump, according to a CNN poll released Jan. 19. The states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin — are considered critical in the upcoming election because they were decided by 8-points or fewer in 2016.

Michael Dawidziak, a Republican campaign strategist who worked on the campaign of the late President George H.W. Bush, said Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania remain critical for Trump’s electoral map equation, adding that Trump should focus less on his acquittal and more on speaking about the economy to woo undecided voters in those states.

“It doesn't take very much to swing those states back in the Democratic column,” Dawidziak said. “You’ve got to look at what plays in those states, especially with the swing voters … that’s how he should be crafting his message right now.”