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

Several current and former Trump advisers gathered to mingle and toast the president’s acquittal in the Senate

WASHINGTON — Well, where else were they going to go?

One mile from the scene of President Trump’s acquittal in his impeachment trial, members of his defense team, family and administration gathered Wednesday evening at the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington. They turned its marbled lobby into something of a hive bursting with “Keep America Great” hats, well-done steaks and bottles of red wine.

“I think it’s clearly a validation of the fact that the president never committed a crime,” Corey Lewandowski, the president’s former campaign manager, said as he flashed a blue piece of paper from his wallet. It was a Senate gallery ticket; he had watched the vote as it happened.

“We’ve had a very good week,” Mr. Lewandowski said, “between the debacle in Iowa” — referring to assorted fumbles that left the Democratic results in the 2020 caucuses in a state of suspended uncertainty — “the State of the Union speech and then the acquittal of the impeachment proceedings.”

Everyone else seemed to have gotten the message. Mr. Lewandowski was only one of several current and former Trump advisers who had gathered at the hotel to mingle and drink. On Tuesday, a photograph of an airplane full of Trump campaign surrogates returning from Iowa sailed around the internet. By Wednesday, roughly half them appeared to have passed through the hotel at some point to celebrate the verdict with plenty of booze and slightly bitter undertones.