If anything the trial of Trump has boosted his re-election hopes

He was not magnanimous in victory.

Mr Trump said that he, his family and the US had been put through a terrible ordeal by “corrupt people”.

Speaking at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, he was cruel about the motivations of the hugely respected Mormon politician for Utah, Mitt Romney, in being the only Republican Party senator to vote for his removal as president. “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,” Mr Trump said.

The impeachment process has illustrated to a dramatic extent the bitter political and cultural polarisation in the United States. When Richard Nixon was on the verge of being impeached in 1974, he resigned in part because he had lost the support of some key members of his Republican Party. No such bipartisan thinking is on display today.

The American political system of checks and balances, which was drawn up in the aftermath of the revolutionary war by great thinkers and strategists, several of whom were of Ulster descent, has rarely been utilised as fully as now.

Some moderate Democratic Party and Republican Party politicians believe that Mr Trump’s behaviour over Ukraine was disgraceful, but fell short of high crimes and misdemeanours and so impeachment was overkill. That it led to a trial might yet mean that Mr Trump is re-elected later this year.

The US is held in deep affection here in Northern Ireland, by both sides of the community. Looking in from the outside, Mr Trump’s verbal outbursts and unpredictable conduct seem extraordinary and at times alarming, but if Americans decide to keep him as commander in chief later this year, that will be entirely a matter for them. In the meantime we trust that with good counsel he will ensure that America continues to be the global beacon for opportunity and the influence for good that it has been since it was founded.