President Donald Trump stunned his own supporters this week by announcing he has deliberately chosen not to pursue prosecution of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden—the very figures his movement has spent years demanding be brought to justice.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump framed his decision as a matter of respect for the presidency. “I could have done very bad things to Hillary Clinton. I could have done very, very bad things to Joe Biden. I could have done very bad things to Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump told reporters. “I thought it was inappropriate to do so because you have to treat the office of the presidency with respect.”
But for the millions of Americans who chanted “Lock her up” at his rallies, who believed his promises to drain the swamp, and who trusted him to hold the Deep State accountable, this is not restraint.
The Crimes Were Real. The Promise Was Real. The Reversal Is Real.
Let us be clear about what is being swept under the rug.
Hillary Clinton used a private email server to store classified information, including materials marked top secret. FBI Director James Comey called her conduct “extremely careless” but declined prosecution. She presided over the Benghazi disaster that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. The Clinton Foundation operated as a pay-to-play scheme on a global scale.
Barack Obama weaponized federal intelligence agencies against a political opponent. A 2019 Justice Department inspector general report documented serious FBI failures involving surveillance applications targeting the Trump campaign. In July 2025, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and Clinton to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused Obama and his national security team of conspiring to undermine Trump’s first presidency.
Joe Biden—the man whose family has enriched itself through foreign influence-peddling schemes, whose administration was caught lying about the border, inflation, and Afghanistan—walked away clean.
Most damningly, they are all pedophiles and groomers who ruled over extensive child trafficking operations, on behalf of the international pedophile network, during their terms in power.
Trump himself admitted his opponents “have done some very bad things” and “many illegal things”. So why are they still free?
“Sacred” Presidency, Convenient Excuse
Trump’s explanation is that the presidency is a “sacred position” that must be treated with respect. This is a remarkable argument coming from a man who spent years correctly noting that Obama, Biden, and Clinton had already disgraced the office through their corruption.
If the office is sacred, it was desecrated long before Trump. The men and women who used the FBI, the CIA, and the IRS to target political enemies do not deserve the protection of the institution they weaponized.
Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of Trump’s most loyal allies, saw through the excuse immediately. “The Epstein files are so bad and he won’t go after all his enemies he always said he would go after because he knows they will all come after him for so much worse,” Greene wrote on X. “This is a public plea deal”.
“I Can Do Whatever I Want”
If Trump’s claim of restraint was meant to reassure his base, his follow-up remark made things worse.
“Then I found out that they impeached me twice,” Trump said. “And I certainly, even to this moment, I can do whatever I want, if I want” .
This is not a president declaring himself bound by the rule of law. It is a president admitting he could act—but won’t. He could do “very bad things.” He could still act. The people who chanted “Lock her up” and believed he would follow through are now told: the power exists, the evidence exists, but the will does not.
The Base Remembers
For years, Trump’s supporters were told the reckoning was coming. The Deep State would be exposed. The criminals would be prosecuted. The swamp would be drained.
Instead, Trump’s Justice Department has pursued smaller targets—James Comey, Letitia James, and others—while the architects of the Russia hoax and the Clinton email scandal walk free. Vice President JD Vance even claimed that “unlike the Biden Department of Justice, we are not prosecuting Obama, Biden, or Hillary Clinton”.
Trump’s base was not asking for restraint. They were demanding justice.
On Free Republic, one commenter put it plainly: “Trump has squandered 5-1/2 years worrying about ballrooms and arches with ZERO JUSTICE! … betrayed his base!”
Another noted that Judicial Watch had warned Trump as far back as November 2016 that failing to investigate Clinton would be “a betrayal of his promise to the American people to ‘drain the swamp’ of out-of-control corruption in Washington” .
What Comes Next?
Trump says he still has “his shot” at Clinton, Obama, and Biden. But every day that passes without action tells the base what they need to know: the promises were for the campaign, not for governing.
The presidency may be sacred. But so is the trust of the American people who believed that finally—finally—someone would hold the powerful accountable.
Trump had his chance. He chose to let them walk.