Published : 08 Oct 2026, 12:21 PM
Updated : 08 Oct 2026, 12:21 PM
US President Donald Trump has said he “could’ve done very bad things” to Hillary Clinton and former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, saying he chose not to because of his respect for the presidency.
Trump made the remarks during an Oval Office event on Wednesday, promoting his “Trump Accounts” for children after returning to Washington, DC from campaign events ahead of the November midterm elections, UK-based publication The Independent reports.
The three senior Democratic figures are frequent targets of Trump’s attacks.
A reporter asked Trump about his previous claim that Democrats would impeach him if they regained control of Congress in November.
“For what?” the reporter asked.
“They don’t know,” Trump said before turning to Clinton, his rival in the 2016 presidential election, and Biden and Obama, who preceded him in the White House.
“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.”
Trump said he had considered such action inappropriate because “you have to treat the office of the presidency with respect”.
“Then I found out that they impeached me twice and I certainly, to this moment, I can do whatever I want, if I want,” he said. “They’ve done some very bad things.”
“I’ve had plenty of people say, ‘Let’s go get them.’ And I said no, you can’t do that to the presidency,” Trump added.
Trump was impeached twice during his first presidency but was not removed from office by the Senate. Clinton, Obama and Biden had no role in those impeachment proceedings.
The US Constitution gives the House of Representatives the power to impeach a president, while the Senate holds the trial.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that Democrats would be “raring to go” to impeach Trump if they retake the House in November, a claim he has also used to rally Republican voters ahead of the midterms, the report said.
“It’s guaranteed, probably on the first day – first or second day,” Johnson told conservative commentator and CNN contributor Scott Jennings this week. “Remember, they’ve already filed articles of impeachment in this Congress.”
Some Democrats have raised the possibility of impeachment if they regain control of the House in November, although others have played down the prospect.
“This is something, oftentimes, I think the right-wing media wants us to talk about,” California Representative Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said. “But it’s not anything that is top of the agenda for House Democrats.”
