The US Senate has started the historic impeachment trial of President Donald Trump amidst acrimonious scenes among the Senators from the ruling Republican party and the opposition Democrats over the rules of the game.

The impeachment trial began on Tuesday and comes nearly a week after the House of Representatives, where the Democrats enjoy a majority, voted to send articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate.

President Trump’s lawyers submitted a trial brief Monday calling his impeachment by the House “a dangerous perversion” of the US constitution and demanding his immediate acquittal by the Senate.

Flexing his solid 53-47 majority, the Republican Senate leader also made clear he would summarily block any Democratic attempts to change his rules.

The 435-member House on December 18 charged Trump with “high crimes and misdemeanors” and impeached him for pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential Democratic rival for the current president in the 2020 elections.

Adam Schiff, the leader of the House impeachment managers prosecuting Trump, countered that the process “makes no sense” for a trial, and was designed instead to ensure evidence is never heard and Trump is exculpated.

Political experts say that Trump is likely to emerge victorious as his Republican party enjoys majority in the Senate.This is only the third time in American history that a US President is facing impeachment trail in the Senate.

Confident of the end result of the impeachment trial, Trump was in Davos to attend the annual meeting of World Economic Forum, where he met the leaders of various countries, including Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan.