Did the Senate ever convict Donald Trump in the third impeachment trial?
Executive summary
The Senate did not convict Donald Trump in what is commonly called his second impeachment trial (the House’s second impeachment in January 2021) — the final Senate vote was 57–43 to convict, short of the two‑thirds required to remove or bar him [1] [2]. Available sources do not mention a Senate conviction in any later “third” impeachment; reporting and timelines in these sources treat a possible third impeachment as hypothetical or as actions in 2025 that had not produced a Senate conviction [3] [4].
1. How the count fell short: the 57–43 vote and the two‑thirds rule
The Senate vote on the article accusing Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 attack resulted in 57 guilty votes and 43 not guilty — a majority but ten votes short of the constitutional two‑thirds threshold (67 votes) necessary for conviction, so the Senate acquitted him [1] [2] [5].
2. Why a “majority” wasn’t enough: the Constitution and precedent
Impeachment convictions in the Senate require a two‑thirds majority to remove an officer or to disqualify from future office; a simple majority in the House impeaches but does not remove [4]. Multiple news accounts and encyclopedic entries explain that while a bipartisan minority of Republicans joined Democrats to vote guilty, the constitutional bar for conviction remained unmet [1] [6].
3. Bipartisan fracture — notable Republican defections
Seven Republican senators crossed party lines to vote to convict alongside all Democrats and independents — making the 57 guilty votes the largest bipartisan conviction tally in a presidential impeachment to date — but the defections were insufficient to reach 67 [1] [7].
4. The question of “third” impeachment: reporting and political context
Several outlets and analysts in 2024–2025 discussed the possibility of a third impeachment if the House brought new articles; those pieces treat a third impeachment as politically plausible but note that, given Senate rules and partisan splits, another acquittal was likely [3] [8]. Congressional documents from 2025 show House resolutions filed or proposed (H.Res.353, H.Res.537) but the sources provided do not report a completed Senate trial resulting in conviction for any third impeachment [9] [10] [4].
5. What the acquittal meant legally and politically
Because the Senate vote did not reach two‑thirds, Trump remained eligible to hold future federal office and was not removed or barred by the Senate; news coverage framed the 57–43 outcome as a political rebuke by some Republicans but a legal acquittal because the constitutional requirement was unmet [2] [6] [5].
6. Limits of available reporting and what’s not in these sources
Available sources do not mention any Senate conviction of Trump in a so‑called third impeachment trial. They do not record a post‑2021 Senate trial that produced the two‑thirds vote needed for conviction; if you seek confirmation of events after the documents above (for example, any Senate conviction in 2025–2026), those events are not reported in the supplied material (not found in current reporting).
7. Competing framings and implicit agendas in coverage
Mainstream outlets (NPR, BBC) highlighted both the unusual bipartisan guilty majority and the constitutional hurdle that left Trump acquitted [6] [2]. Opinion pieces and Democratic strategists argued a third impeachment could be warranted politically but would likely be symbolic given Senate arithmetic — a line of argument that serves accountability narratives while acknowledging practical limits [3] [8]. Congressional resolution texts signal formal impeachment efforts [9] [10], but introducing articles in the House serves different political aims — record‑building, public pressure, and messaging — even when conviction in the Senate is unlikely [4].
If you want, I can pull exact dates, the names of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict, or the full text of the cited House resolutions from the sources above.