Trump says he could have done "very bad things" to Hillary Clinton, Obama and Biden. Then he said one more line

It was meant to be a good-news event.

On 7 October, Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office to announce that children were now being signed up for "Trump Accounts" automatically. Each account gets a $1,000 government deposit to start.

Then a reporter asked about impeachment, and the event went somewhere else.

"I could've done very bad things to Hillary Clinton," Trump said. "I could've done very, very bad things to Joe Biden. I could've done very bad things to Barack Hussein Obama."

What did Trump say about Hillary Clinton, Obama and Biden?

He said he chose not to act against them. "I thought it was inappropriate to do so because you have to treat the office of the presidency with respect," he said, according to The National News Desk.

In the clip that spread online, he goes further. He says he has had his shot, and still does, at Biden, at Clinton and at Obama. He says plenty of people around him told him to go after them. "I said, no, you can't do that to the presidency."

A clip of the remarks, shared by conservative commentator Eric Daugherty, passed 4 million views in two days. Daugherty's post said Trump had told his people not to go after the three because the presidency is "sacred".

But Trump did not stop there. "Then I found out that they impeached me twice," he went on, "and I certainly, to this moment, I can do whatever I want, if I want."

He ended with a short line. "They've done some very bad things."

Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Why did Trump bring up Clinton, Obama and Biden now?

It started with the midterms. Trump has been telling voters that if Democrats win control of Congress in November, they will impeach him again. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the same thing to Republican voters, The Hill reported.

So the reporter asked a simple question: "For what?"

"They don't know," Trump answered. Then he moved straight to the three Democrats.

The midterm elections are on 3 November 2026. Trump was impeached twice in his first term. The first was over a phone call with Ukraine's president about investigating Joe Biden. The second came after the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. The Senate acquitted him both times.

Is it restraint or a threat?

It depends who you ask.

Supporters hear a president holding back. Daugherty's post argued that Trump's critics call him a dictator who uses the Justice Department as a weapon, yet here he is doing the opposite. He wrote that the Justice Department under Biden and Merrick Garland was far worse.

Critics hear something else. The New Republic called it the most blatant admission yet in a long line of threats against Trump's opponents. Its headline said Trump "declares he can do 'very bad things' to his enemies if he wants".

The voting rights group Democracy Docket put it in one line on X. "He's telling you exactly how he sees his power."

The words doing the work are "if I want". To one reader, that is a man showing he has power and choosing not to use it. To another, it is a man saying the choice is still open.

What happened to "lock her up"?

This is not the first time Trump has talked about what he could do to Hillary Clinton.

In 2016, "lock her up" was a chant at his rallies. In a debate that October, he told Clinton that if he were in charge, she would be in jail. Weeks after he won, he said he did not want to hurt the Clintons and did not plan to pursue her.

She was never charged. Now, ten years later, he is describing that choice as an act of respect for the office.

Obama is a different story. The New Republic noted that Trump accused Obama of treason earlier this year. That kept a question alive online: Is Trump going after Obama? Trump's answer on Wednesday was that he could, and that he has not.

Photo: The White House from Washington, DC / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Are James Comey and John Brennan being prosecuted?

Daugherty's post pointed out that Trump still has investigations running against two other men he has long attacked. They are former FBI director James Comey and former CIA director John Brennan.

Comey has been charged twice. His first case, over what he told Congress in 2020, was thrown out because a judge found the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed. The Trump administration appealed.

Then in April 2026, a grand jury in North Carolina indicted him again. This time the charge was about an Instagram photo he posted in May 2025. It showed seashells arranged to read "86 47". Prosecutors said it was a threat against the 47th president. Comey says it was not, pleaded not guilty and said he would fight the charges. A judge had set a trial date of 15 July.

Brennan's lawyers confirmed in December 2025 that he is a "target" of a grand jury investigation in Florida. They asked a judge to stop it, saying the Justice Department was shopping for a friendly judge. We could not find a report that he has been charged.

Photo: Federal Bureau of Investigation / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

So critics point out that a former FBI director and a former CIA director face the full weight of the Justice Department. Supporters reply that neither is a former president, and that is exactly the line Trump drew.

Could Democrats impeach Trump after the midterms?

They could try. Impeachment starts in the House of Representatives, and only needs a simple majority there. Removing a president needs two thirds of the Senate, which has never happened in US history.

That is why the midterms matter so much to both sides. Trump and Johnson are telling Republican voters that a Democratic House means a third impeachment.

For readers outside the US, this kind of fight can feel far away. It is not. We have looked at how one of Trump's closest aides is now taking aim at Democrats, and how his defence secretary wants a public execution. The tone in Washington keeps getting harder.

What does "I can do whatever I want, if I want" mean?

Trump gave three names, said he spared them, and called it respect for the presidency. His supporters see a leader who had every chance to strike back and chose not to.

But he finished with nine words that both sides will repeat until 3 November. "I can do whatever I want, if I want."

Twenty-five days before the midterms, a president told the country that the only thing standing between his rivals and "very bad things" is his own choice. Some voters heard mercy. Others heard a warning. Either way, every voter now knows exactly how he sees it.