Once she was defeated in 2016, Hillary has energetically sought to punish Trump for her defeat.
By 5 February 2024, a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats had worked out amongst themselves a 370-page bill that in their view, and in that of the White House, would solve the issue of a flood of illegal migrants from across the world through the Mexico border, including from China and countries having extremist governments. Many of those could have been potential threats to the security of the US, and could be “sleepers” awaiting instructions from their controllers in states that were inimical to the US. Donald Trump had in effect been presented with a choice between getting elected as the 47th President of the US or facing the risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. Such a pair of contrasting fates was the consequence of the Justice Department seeking to send Trump to jail and to confiscate as much of his assets as it could in a manner that was perceived by neutral or pro-Trump and even many pro-Biden voters, as a partisan effort to send a strong Republican contender to President Biden in the November US Presidential election. In contrast to the Justice Department in the Biden administration going into a supercharged mode to indict and sentence Donald Trump, its appointees were in contrast lenient to President Biden, who got away with only a mild rebuke despite committing what appears to be the same offence as ex-President Trump was accused of, improper storage of Presidential papers. The Special Prosecutor made the unusual claim that he was not taking further action as in his view, Biden would appear to a jury as merely a “forgetful old man” rather than as a criminal. Guessing the verdict of a jury is a difficult issue in the US, but such is what was done to justify not seeking prosecution of Biden. Several Republicans have now called on Trump if elected the US President to prosecute not just son Hunter or several others close to Biden but Biden himself. He would cease to be President of the US after January 2025 and thereby be deprived of the immunity that job enjoys from prosecution.
In the case of President Nixon, he ceased to have any immunity once he resigned as President on August 8, 1974. Incoming President Ford, who until then had been Vice-President, pardoned him and as a consequence, narrowly lost in the polls to Jimmy Carter in 1976, who himself lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980 as a consequence of the Iran hostage crisis. The hostages held by Iran were freed only after Carter lost to Reagan who was sworn in in 1981 as President of the US. Although there was gossip about some friends of the Republican Party covertly conveying to Iran that if they were to do so, they would not face retribution from a Republican administration, such gossip has never been substantiated. While no immediate kinetic action was taken against Iran by Reagan after the hostages were released, the clerical regime in Tehran has been treated as a foe by Washington even since. Taking and holding the hostages in the US embassy was the first in a long list of policies that Iran has followed that has kept the country on the enemies list of the US since 1979.
Only Barack Obama as President thereafter sought a reconciliation with Iran during his second term, a bid that was promptly reversed by his successor Donald Trump as soon as he defeated Hillary Clinton and assumed the Presidency in 2017. Given the visceral dislike felt by many US voters about Iran, it is likely that should Kamala Harris become the next US President, she would follow Biden’s example of going slow on Obama-style reconciliation, certainly as long as Iran continues to assist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah that are committed to the destruction of Israel. As for the flood of illegals across the Mexican border, it is no secret that Trump ensured that a bipartisan bill on the border was shelved in February. This was because an uncontrolled flow of illegals from the southern border was his strongest card against his Democratic opponent. Biden did no favours to Vice-President Harris by making her nominally in charge of taking care of preventing the flood of illegals, even while policy remained firmly within the White House. That stint in a job sans any power is the main obstacle Kamala Harris is facing in her bid to be the successor to President Biden. Calls by Republicans to send him and several others close to him to jail by an administration run by Trump may have been instrumental in Biden stubbornly seeking a second term for himself despite voter resistance until July itself. Given the reality that Trump seems destined to go back to the White House or to prison, understandably the ex-President is supercharged in his quest for victory. He is assisted by the theme of the Harris campaign being less the numerous achievements of the Biden administration but campaign efforts at converting the contest into a fight between Prosecutor and Felon. Perceptions are widespread that the effort under the Biden administration to prosecute Trump is not about justice but about trying to neutralise a popular rival for the White House. Now that several voters see Trump as a victim more than as a wrongdoer, it is likely that Trump would prevail over Harris in November. Should that happen, it may be best for Trump to ignore his rival once in office, just as President Trump did in the case of Hillary Clinton. Unlike Hillary Clinton, once the Empress of the Beltway, Biden has little traction within the Washington power elite, hence he is unlikely to follow the vindictive course adopted by Hillary. Once she was defeated in 2016, Hillary has energetically sought to punish Trump for her defeat, while he was President and subsequently as ex-President. Such efforts were made by Hillary through the Beltway elite, the very action of hers which may result in the object of her wrath, Donald J. Trump, winning back the White House.