One day after the Senate acquitted him in 1999, Bill Clinton spoke from the White House about the grueling impeachment battle. It had been a bitter ordeal. He had lied to the country and broken the law. Congress defied the American people’s wishes to try to remove him from office. The House saw fit to impeach him; the Senate could not muster the support to convict him. That day, Clinton addressed the nation in a conciliatory tone.

“I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people,” he said. He spoke in terms of healing and transcending partisan divides. “This can be and this must be a time of reconciliation and renewal for America,” he added.

It’s hard to imagine how President Donald Trump could have done things more differently in his own address on Thursday. Speaking to a motley crowd of White House aides, Cabinet officials, and congressional allies, the president bounced between gratitude for his most ardent supporters and anger toward his perceived enemies. “It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops,” he seethed, referring to years of investigations into his misconduct. Now that Trump will no longer face consequences for his actions, the president and his allies are eager to inflict them upon everyone else.

One of the first targets so far is Alexander Vindman, an Army lieutenant colonel who handled Ukraine policy on the National Security Council. Vindman testified before the House last fall about what he overheard during Trump’s fateful July 25 call and the events surrounding it. Conservative commentators responded by accusing the Ukrainian-born officer of treason and espionage. On Friday, the White House fired him for disloyalty—not to the country he serves in uniform, but to the president who coerced a foreign power into smearing an election rival.

“Today, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman was escorted out of the White House where he has dutifully served his country and his President,” Vindman’s lawyers said in a statement on Friday afternoon. “He does so having spoken publicly once, and only pursuant to a subpoena from the United States Congress. There is no question in the mind of any American why this man’s job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House. [He] was asked to leave for telling the truth.” Late Friday evening, the axe fell on Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, who has also provided damning testimony during the House inquiry.