During his campaign, Trump repeatedly lambasted Hillary Clinton, who had come under federal investigation for her use of a private email server as secretary of state. He suggested her actions were worse than those by Petraeus.

FBI Director James Comey has drawn a distinction between the two cases, saying there was no evidence that Clinton or her aides had intended to break the law through careless handling of sensitive information. Federal prosecutors said Petraeus knew black binders he shared with Broadwell contained classified information, but he nonetheless provided them.

Trump’s repeated efforts to lambaste Clinton for her use of a private email server and Comey’s effort to inform congress of the FBI’s investigation of her emails eleven days before the election, were all ostensibly made out of a concern that confidential information needs to be handled in a professional fashion.  The fact that Trump is seriously considering Petraeus to be a part of his cabinet demonstrates that his concern about Clinton’s handling of confidential information was essentially a campaign strategy.