News flash: Trump was never going to lock Clinton up

We were not that surprised when we found out that President-Elect Donald Trump chose not to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton. Trump has continually spoken about his stance on various issues and how it’s necessary to have an opening position for negotiation. The problem for many Republicans has been to watch the scaling back of many of his policy positions so suddenly — which is what got him elected in the first place.

This has been incredibly frustrating for those who worked hard to support him prior to the election. Even Breitbart news has condemned the new positon as a “broken promise.”

{mosads}But you must admit, we were not all that surprised. We truly did not think that the new administration was going to “lock her up.” As much as some supporters might have wanted Trump to pursue such a course, the problems it would create for the legitimacy of our government were just as obvious back then as they are now. The president-elect is clearly aware of this problem.

Let’s go back to before the election. Trump had been accused of having close ties with Democrats in the past. For many years, he was donating to the Democrats and schmoozing with Democratic Party officials. Even former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) complained that Trump was “not a conservative” and that the billionaire’s motivation for becoming a Republican was so that he could run on the Republican ticket and have a real shot at becoming president.

It must be said that many of the people who voted for Trump did not vote for the policies that he was going to enact, but for the fact that they wanted to shake things up. Trump supporters have been ardently supportive. In fact, as a candidate, Trump bragged that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot people” and “wouldn’t lose voters”. Voters strongly felt that Trump was going to make a radical difference in the way the country was to be ran, they did not really care about his specific policy agenda.

Since the election, however, he has made overtures to work for the benefit of the entire country and not one political party. In his acceptance speech on election night, Trump spoke about being a president for all Americans. He has even confirmed through this own Twitter feed post-election that his goal was to unite the country.

But the concern is real for many people is very real. They voted for Trump because they wanted to see things change — they wanted the system to be turned upside down and they wanted him to keep his promise. With the reversal of many promises he made during the campaign and with the reversal of course on his unrealistic, impractical, and divisive promise to put Clinton in jail, even the staunchest supporters are left wondering which promises he intends to keep.

But you must admit, we are not all that surprised.

Ruben Major obtained his Master’s degree in military history from Norwich University. He writes on politics, public safety and Emergency Medical Services. He is also editor in chief of EMS Wire, an online Public Safety/EMS blog and news service, and has served the community as an EMT/paramedic for 15 years.

The views of Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.