President Donald Trump holds up a newspaper with the headline that reads "Trump acquitted" as he speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Exulting in his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump took a scorched-earth victory lap Thursday, unleashing his fury against those who tried to remove him from office while looking ahead to his reelection campaign.

Trump, triumphantly waving a newspaper front page — “ACQUITTED” — denounced his political foes, declared the impeachment proceedings a “disgrace” and portrayed himself as a victim rather than a president accused of serious corruption. That echoed broadsides hours earlier that stunned the crowd at an annual prayer breakfast.

“It was evil, it was corrupt,” Trump declared at the White House. “This should never ever happen to another president, ever.”

“We went through hell, unfairly. We did nothing wrong,” he continued.

Trump vented about his grievances against the impeachment process and ticked off names of the “vicious and mean” people he felt had wronged him: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and former FBI Director James Comey. But then he reveled in the verdict delivered by the GOP-controlled Senate the day before.

“Now we have that gorgeous word. I never thought it would sound so good,” Trump said. Ït's called 'total acquittal.”

As Trump spoke, nearly every inch of the White House's East Room was packed with supporters. Among them: Republican senators who cast some of the votes to acquit him, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Chuck Grassley, several Cabinet members, including Attorney General William Barr and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and staunch House allies including Reps. Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Going one by one, Trump spent nearly a half-hour in rambling remarks saluting GOP lawmakers who backed him both in the Capitol and on television.

This is an excerpt — read more in Friday's Butler Eagle.