Trump moped alone in ‘self-pity mode’ at the White House residence as he was impeached for the 2nd time, reports say

• President Donald Trump was isolated and despondent at the White House residence as the House of Representatives voted to impeach him for the second time on Wednesday, reports say.
• Trump was impeached for his role in inciting protesters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6. Five people died as a result.
• Sources told CNN he was in “self-pity mode” and “holed up in the residence.” A senior administration official told The Washington Post: “The president is pretty wound up.”
• Many White House aides have resigned or left their post since the riot, leaving the president largely alone, both outlets said.
• According to The Post, Trump feels let down by his advisors and told aides to withhold legal fees from his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump cloistered himself in the White House in “self-pity mode” as the House impeached him for the second time, CNN and The Washington Post reported.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump over his role in inciting his supporters who went on to storm the US Capitol and destroy federal property on January 6. Five people died as a result of the violence.

The president was impeached by the House in February 2020 but later acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate. But he now appears more likely to be convicted by the Senate, with a number of Republican Party senators turning on him in recent weeks.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is “seriously entertaining” a vote to convict Trump and bar him from holding a federal-government position again, GOP sources told Insider.

As House impeachment proceedings elapsed on Wednesday, the president cut a sad figure, White House staffers told news outlets.

"He's been holed up in the residence, that's never a good thing," a White House source told CNN at the time.

"He's by himself, not a lot of people to bounce ideas off of, whenever that happens he goes to his worst instincts."

"He's in self-pity mode," another White House advisor told CNN, adding that "everybody's angry at everyone" at the White House.

Read more:'It was degrading': Black Capitol custodial staff talk about what it felt like to clean up the mess left by violent pro-Trump white supremacists

One reason for Trump's melancholia was his frustration with aides and advisors for not sticking with him in his time of need, The Washington Post reported.

A cluster of top US officials have quit their jobs in response to the Capitol riot, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger, and chief of staff to the First Lady Stephanie Grisham.

That Trump is upset with his staff is not new.

Since losing the election, the president has been angry with aides, officials, and advisors whom he believed did not back him hard enough in his baseless claims of voter fraud.

According to multiple reports, Trump has singled out Vice President Mike Pence for his apparent lack of loyalty.

Before the January 6 riot at the Capitol, Trump called Pence, who was at the time tasked with certifying President-elect Joe Biden's election victory, and told him: "You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a p---y," The New York Times reported.

During the impeachment vote, Trump was also upset with Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney, The Post reported.

Trump recently told aides not to pay Giuliani his legal fees and said he will need to personally approve any travel expenses claimed by Giuliani for his work contesting the US election result.

"The president is pretty wound up," a senior administration official told The Post, with a former administration official telling the newspaper: "He is feeling increasingly alone and isolated and frustrated."

Trump's listlessness on Wednesday was welcomed by administration officials, who say they have no fight left in them, The Daily Beast reported.

"Today was a quiet day because that is what everyone wants," a senior White House official told the outlet on Wednesday. "If we can keep things quiet and event-free between now and the Biden [inauguration] that's a victory."

In the wake of the riot, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Snap permanently barred Trump for inciting violence.

A White House source who spoke with CNN said: "Now that Twitter isn't available God only knows what the outlet will be."