US President Donald Trump was impeached for abuse of power, in a historic vote in the House of Representatives yesterday, setting up a Senate trial on removing him from office after three turbulent years.

By a 230 to 197 vote in the Democratic-majority House, the 45th US president became just the third occupant of the White House in American in history to be impeached.

Democrats said they had "no choice" but to formally charge the 73-year-old Republican, whose impeachment along stark party lines, places an indelible stain on his record, while driving a spike ever deeper into the US political divide.

The lawmaker who led the impeachment inquiry ahead of the vote Adam Schiff said what is at risk here is the very idea of America.

Trump will now stand trial in the Senate, where his Republicans hold a solid majority and are expected to exonerate him.

The House vote came four months after a whistleblower blew open the scandal of Trump pressuring Ukraine's president to investigate his potential White House challenger in 2020, the veteran Democrat Joe Biden.