If there is anything more to Donald Trump than bluster, we have yet to see it.

Trump has not even been sworn in as president, and he already is walking away from campaign promises that are too hard to keep, starting with his pledge to pursue the case against Hillary Rodham Clinton, who violated national-security laws, lied about it, and very likely suborned criminal acts by others, including obstruction of justice.

Speaking in the jabberwocky that is the lingua franca of Planet Trump, Kellyanne Conway says that the president-elect already has turned his back on his swaggering campaign promise to put his opponent in jail for what are — let us keep in mind — serious crimes. “Look, I think he’s thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the president of the United States, and things that sound like the campaign aren’t among them.” Trump, she explained, is “also the head of your party now,” so when he “tells you before he’s even inaugurated he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message.”

That’s a lot of words when one of two might have sufficed: “laziness” or “cowardice.”