Former President Donald Trump spent Sunday evening watching his friend Tom Brady romp to victory in the Super Bowl, looking relaxed and refreshed at his annual golf club party in Florida, just a day-and-a-half before senators begin deciding his political fate, sources said.
The senators will begin on Tuesday considering whether the former president’s Jan. 6 rally speech imploring supporters to “fight like hell” before the violent riot at the Capitol makes him guilty of inciting an insurrection.
But on Sunday evening, he arrived at his West Palm Beach golf club to a round of applause before the big game began.
Members have said he has been a regular sight at the club, a short drive from his new home at Mar-a-Lago, since leaving the White House. And confidants even said his ban from Twitter and its “hateful echo chamber,” as one put it, has helped lift his mood.
Movie star Sylvester Stallone and his family were among the about 200 guests at the $75-a-head Super Bowl party, during which Trump ate dinner, watched the game on a big screen, and left at halftime — much as he has done in previous years.
This year, he did not bring his wife, Melania Trump, according to a video posted online of his arrival. It showed him entering the club dressed formally, wearing a navy suit and a blue tie.
“Good party, food was great, everyone was happy, and he seemed relaxed and in his element,” a guest said.
The game’s result likely helped Trump’s mood further. He has counted Brady, the quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, among his friends since soon after his first Super Bowl victory with the New England Patriots. Brady even has a locker at the golf club.
Earlier in the week, Trump played golf four days in a row, making the most of Florida’s winter climate. On other days, he has practiced his swing on the driving range before taking up his favorite spot in the grill room.
His hopes of returning to the Washington firmament now rest with senators who are still negotiating how the proceedings will be conducted.
Both sides have signaled their intent to hold a fast trial with few witnesses. House managers prosecuting the case are expected to rely instead on appealing directly to senators with video images of the deadly attack on the Capitol.
A slew of Republican senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was then the majority leader, quickly denounced last month’s violence and blamed Trump for stirring up the rioters both before his rally that day and during it. However, since then, they have closed ranks and rallied around an argument that it is unconstitutional to try a president who is no longer in office.
They rehearsed their thinking on the Sunday news shows.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi dismissed Trump’s second impeachment as a “meaningless messaging, partisan exercise.” And Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said there is no chance of conviction and that Trump’s calls for his supporters to “fight” were “figurative” rather than literal.
Paul forced Republicans to stake their position publicly last month with a motion that the trial was unconstitutional. Some 44 senators backed his argument, strongly suggesting that Democrats will fall well short of the 67 votes needed to convict and bar Trump from holding public office again.
That has left Trump’s aides and supporters confident of victory, which they say has played a part in his relaxed posture since leaving office.
Jason Miller, a campaign adviser who is now part of the team coordinating his defense, said giving up the White House has lifted a weight from the former president’s shoulders.
“The president has said he feels happier now than he’s been in some time. He’s said that not being on social media, and not being subject to the hateful echo chamber that social media too frequently becomes, has actually been good,” Miller told the United Kingdom’s Sunday Times.
“That’s something the first lady has backed up as well,” he added. “She has said she loves it — that he’s much happier and is enjoying himself much more.”
