Trump: “We caught Hillary Clinton. We caught Barack Hussein Obama"

In July 2025, President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against his political predecessors, declaring during an Oval Office address and subsequent social media posts that his administration had "caught" Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden in what he termed the "crime of the century."

Trump explicitly accused former President Obama of being the "ringleader" of a seditious effort to undermine his 2016 election victory through the Russia investigation. He asserted that recently declassified materials released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard provided "irrefutable proof" that Obama and the Democratic establishment had committed treason by attempting a "coup" against his first administration.

Regarding Hillary Clinton, Trump claimed that although he had chosen not to pursue charges related to her private email server in 2016, he no longer felt obligated to show leniency.

He alleged that Clinton’s funding of the Steele dossier was a criminal act designed to "rig" the electoral process. These accusations were coupled with public demands for Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch formal investigations into these individuals.

Critics and political analysts at the time suggested that these aggressive claims were strategically timed to distract from the simultaneous public release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and other controversies surrounding his administration.

The former president's rhetoric culminated in late 2025 with symbolic actions taken at the White House to formalize these grievances. In December 2025, Trump installed a "Presidential Walk of Fame" featuring plaques beneath the portraits of former presidents that contained highly partisan descriptions.

The plaque for Barack Obama officially labeled him "one of the most divisive political figures in American history," while Joe Biden's plaque designated him the "worst president."

While Trump maintains he has evidence of a conspiracy, no formal charges or verified documents proving treason have been produced by the Department of Justice as of December 26, 2025.