Donald Trump Admits He 'Still Likes' Bill Clinton as Epstein Deposition Loom for Ex-President

Donald Trump has defended Bill Clinton as both Clintons prepare to face congressional depositions over links to Jeffrey Epstein, saying someone going after the former president 'bothers' him.

Trump, 79, told NBC News that he 'still likes' Clinton despite having spent years attacking the Clintons during his political career. The remarks come days before scheduled depositions for both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

'It bothers me that somebody is going after Bill Clinton', Trump said. 'See, I like Bill Clinton. I still like Bill.'

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has scheduled Hillary Clinton to appear on 26 February 2026. Bill Clinton follows on 27 February 2026.

Both depositions relate to an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

What Trump Said

Trump told NBC's Tom Llamas it was 'a shame' to have 'an ex-president' and 'the president's wife and secretary of state' pulled into 'the Epstein thing'.

He made the comments personal. 'I liked his behaviour toward me', Trump said of Clinton. 'I thought he got me. He understood me.'

Trump also repeated a 2016 campaign claim that Clinton warned Democrats not to run against him. He said Hillary Clinton 'laughed' at the advice.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Republican Congressman James Comer, is pressing ahead with depositions for both Clintons as part of an investigation tied to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Comer has framed the exercise as serving 'transparency and accountability' for survivors, insisting 'no one is above the law'.

Epstein Deposition And A Sudden Soft Spot

Trump's NBC remarks weren't a casual aside; they were a small performance of aggrieved decency. He told Llamas it was 'a shame' to have 'an ex-president' and 'the president's wife and secretary of state' pulled into 'the Epstein thing,' language that casts the Clintons less as powerful figures facing scrutiny and more as public servants being harassed.​

Trump rarely praises people for their morality, but he will praise them for recognising his force and treating him accordingly.​

He also revived the 2016 trail anecdote he's clearly never tired of, claiming Bill Clinton warned Democrats not to run against him and that Hillary Clinton 'laughed' at Bill's advice. Trump laughed too, because he won — the punchline he always returns to when he wants to reassert dominance and remind everyone who got the last word.​

The White House, sensing an opportunity to make this sound less like a weird detour and more like statesmanship, leaned in. Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the President 'has respect for the former president' and that they 'shared a good relationship.' There's even the glossy social proof: the Clintons attended Trump and Melania's 2005 wedding.​

The Committee's Hard Edge

Comer's committee, however, is not interested in the soft-focus version. In its own statement announcing the depositions, the Oversight Committee said the Clintons had agreed to appear for 'transcribed, filmed depositions' and described their prior posture as 'delaying and defying duly issued subpoenas for six months.' Comer claimed the committee moved towards contempt proceedings, and only when it became clear the House would hold them in contempt did 'the Clintons completely caved.'

The statement also lays out an unflattering procedural history: subpoenas were approved by the Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee on 23 July 2025 and issued by Comer on 5 August 2025; the committee says both Clintons declined rescheduled deposition dates in December 2025, then failed to appear for follow-on subpoena dates in January 2026. On 21 January 2026, the committee says Republicans and Democrats voted to recommend contempt-of-Congress findings against those who defied subpoenas.

Against that backdrop, Trump's sudden concern that 'somebody is going after Bill Clinton' reads less like fairness and more like discomfort with the spectacle of accountability reaching people who are, in the end, his true peers: former presidents, former first ladies, the sort of figures who live above the daily churn.

Why The Timing Matters For Trump

Trump's sudden sympathy has raised eyebrows across Washington, largely because it arrives as the Epstein-linked scrutiny edges closer to figures at the very top of US political life.

For critics, it suggests a deeper discomfort with investigations that climb into elite circles. For supporters, it may be presented as Trump taking the moral high ground, even against long-time rivals. Either way, the optics are striking.

A president who once built campaigns around attacking the Clintons is now publicly defending Bill Clinton's dignity as an ex-president, even while Congress prepares to question him on one of the most toxic scandals in modern American politics.