Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump called Friday on Congress to "expunge" his impeachment for abuse of power following his acquittal in the Senate.

"Should they expunge impeachment in the House? They should because it was a hoax," he told reporters at the White House.

Trump was impeached in December on two charges related to his campaign to get Ukraine's government to start an corruption investigation into his Democratic election opponent Joe Biden.

On Wednesday, the Republican majority in the Senate cleared Trump in only the third impeachment trial of a president in history.

Trump has emerged from his victory in a furious mood, describing his Democratic opponents as "evil."

The Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, has said that if his party wins back control of the chamber in the November general election it will seek to overturn, or expunge, the impeachment.

Trump also turned his anger on the Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who demonstratively ripped up a copy of his State of the Union speech in Congress on Tuesday after Trump delivered it.

"That was terrible, it was a terrible -- so disrespectful," he said, "and actually very illegal."