[Source: BBC]

Only five days after it began, Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial has concluded.

As was widely predicted, the final verdict was that the former president was not guilty of inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol last month.

There have now been four presidential impeachment trials in US history, and this one was by far the shortest.

What it lacked in duration, however, it will make up in consequence.

A precedent – a former president standing trial – was set. Reputations were burnished and tarnished. And a tumultuous stage was set for political battles to come.