House impeachment managers wrapped up their emotionally charged incitement case against Donald Trump with a warning that he remains a clear and present danger to American democracy and could foment still more violence if not barred from running for office again.

“My dear colleagues, is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he’s ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?” Representative Jamie Raskin, the Democrats’ lead prosecutor, asked senators.

Trump’s lawyers will take the Senate floor on Friday (Saturday AEDT) with a defence expected to argue that as terrible as the attack was, it clearly was not the president’s doing. The proceedings could finish with a vote this weekend.

Trump’s case is that holding an impeachment trial for a former president was pointless and even unconstitutional because he has already left office and can no longer be removed. If Trump is convicted, the Senate could bar him from holding public office in the future.

His team will argue Trump was simply exercising his free-speech rights when he sent a frenzied crowd to the Capitol and told it to “fight like hell”.

There was little sign the two days of argument and evidence laid out by prosecutors was going to sway enough Republican senators to give Democrats the two-thirds majority they need to convict Trump.

afr.com’s live blog coverage of the trial will resume early on Saturday AEDT.