Trump’s Team Celebrates Acquittal at (Where Else?) His Washington Hotel

Past a certain hour, the drinks started flowing faster and the lobby turned into a who’s who of fixtures in Mr. Trump’s circle. At one table, Mr. Lewandowski held forth with Eric Bolling, a host for the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Mr. Bolling echoed some supporters by focusing on Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, whose vote to remove the president from office prevented Mr. Trump from being able to say his acquittal had been cast along purely party lines.

“Mitt Romney should be removed from all of his leadership roles and should consider switching parties,” Mr. Bolling declared. When asked if he believed the president would fixate on Mr. Romney’s decision, Mr. Bolling paused. “I hope not,” he said.

This is often the best way to describe the atmosphere at even the best pro-Trump bash: celebratory, but with a palpable amount of spite. Sweet and bitter — the Negroni, as it were, of Senate acquittals.

The perpetual hint of defiance that permeates a crowd like this was even more on display given that the hotel had been a regular gathering place for many of the figures involved in the impeachment proceedings. It was what Lev Parnas, a Soviet-born businessman who played an integral role in the campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate Mr. Trump’s political rivals, called “a breeding ground.”

This, of course, did little to encourage Republicans to shift their support of the president, or the family business, throughout impeachment or otherwise. The Republican National Committee has paid more than $440,000 to the hotel since Mr. Trump was elected — about 24,400 glasses of the hotel’s house white wine. America First Action, a super PAC that supports Mr. Trump’s causes, has spent $505,000 at the hotel since 2017.

As the evening unfolded, the party began to creep out into the open — or at least to the steakhouse adjacent to the lobby. Ms. Guilfoyle and the younger Mr. Trump held court with a merry band of supporters, including Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, who has dipped in and out — and is presumably in again — of the Trump fold. Even as he socialized with the president’s family, Mr. Gaetz announced on Twitter that he had filed an ethics complaint against Speaker Nancy Pelosi for tearing up the president’s State of the Union address.

“Nobody is above the law,” he wrote. “She must be held accountable.”

Against a wall stood Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party and one of the so-called Bad Boys of Brexit whose perpetual presence at the hotel suggests he should have a punch card.



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