President Donald Trump used an Oval Office appearance on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, to tell reporters that he had chosen not to go after three of the most prominent Democrats in American public life — and that nothing was stopping him from reconsidering.
Pressed on whether he could face a third impeachment if Democrats capture the House in the November midterm elections, the president pivoted to Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state he ran against in the 2016 presidential election, and to his two Democratic predecessors in the White House.
“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 said.
“I thought it was inappropriate to do so because you have to treat the office of the presidency with respect,” he continued. “Then I found out that they impeached me twice. I certainly, even to this moment, I can do whatever I want, if I want.”
A Question About a Third Impeachment
The exchange began with the president’s own claim that Democrats would move to impeach him if they take the chamber. When a reporter asked on what grounds, Trump answered that they did not know, then launched into the list of names. He added that the Democrats he had singled out had done very bad things themselves.
Republicans have been making the same argument to their own voters. House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that a Democratic majority would impeach Trump again, calling it “guaranteed, probably on the first day” and saying Democrats are “raring to go.”
Trump was impeached twice during his first term and acquitted both times. The first impeachment grew out of a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about investigating Biden, then his opponent in the 2020 presidential election. The second followed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, on a charge of incitement of insurrection. In an earlier question-and-answer session with reporters, Trump joked that he is “getting good at” being impeached.
Remarks Came at a Children’s Accounts Event
The threat landed at an event with an unlikely theme. Trump had come to the Oval Office to announce that automatic enrollment is now active for “Trump Accounts,” the tax-advantaged investment accounts for children created under his administration earlier in 2026. The program includes a $1,000 government seed deposit for children born between 2025 and 2028.
A Record of Pursuing Political Opponents
The president’s portrait of himself as a leader who stayed his hand sits awkwardly beside the public record of his second term. In June 2025, Trump directed the Justice Department to open a wide-ranging investigation into Biden, grounded in conspiracy theories about the former president’s mental acuity — the first time in the nation’s history that a sitting president publicly ordered an investigation of his predecessor. A day later, Trump conceded that he had no evidence Biden had done anything wrong.
Roughly five months before the Oct. 7 remarks, Trump amplified a social media post demanding that Obama be arrested and prosecuted for treason, alongside others. And since returning to office in 2025, his Justice Department has brought cases against figures he has long treated as adversaries, among them New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. The department has drawn bipartisan criticism over its independence and over the administration’s involvement in investigations of the president’s political opponents.
Critics Say the History Is Being Rewritten
Steve Benen, who writes MS NOW’s MaddowBlog, argued in a column published Oct. 8 that the president’s declaration that he can do whatever he wants amounted to an unsettling distillation of his views on presidential power — and that the claim of restraint does not survive contact with the recent past.
“The president might be eager to brag about his perceived magnanimity, but he’s asking us to forget what we all saw with our own eyes,” Benen wrote. Control of the House will be decided in November, and Trump’s answer in the Oval Office left open the question he was asked — not whether Democrats would move against him, but what he might do first.