What Would Nixon Do?
"Nixon was returned to the wilderness; Trump was released into the wild."
In many ways — his penchant for flamboyant lawlessness, his devotion to criminal advisers, his impeachiness — Donald Trump seemed to model his presidency after that of his friend, Richard Nixon. And while Nixon resigned in disgrace, he worked his way back from the political wilderness. Did he blaze a trail for his former protege? The body politic is barely breathing and not sure it can take any more, but Jack Hughes goes there.
by Jack Hughes
The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace, nestled in the serene suburbs of Yorba Linda, California, used to sell T-shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with the cheeky question What Would Nixon Do? I have a decent sense of who would buy them – I’ve got one of each – but I have occasionally wondered who’d actually ask themselves that question. Despite his recent outbursts, I bet Donald Trump will soon.
Trump raised eyebrows last year when he told Fox & Friends, “I learned a lot from Richard Nixon.” It was a shocking thing to say, but not an altogether surprising thing to hear. Just down the hall from the museum gift shop, the Nixon Presidential Library is now hosting a special exhibit showcasing much of the extensive correspondence exchanged between the two men during the final fifteen or so years of Nixon’s life.
Pandemic precautions have temporarily closed the Nixon Library, but the letters are said to show a warm relationship – perhaps as close as either man came to genuine friendship – based on mutual admiration, mutual interests, and, being who they were, mutual irritants. Trump has often talked about Nixon wanting him to run for office, which likely explains why Trump told him he was “one of this country’s great men.”
Whether Nixon would have endorsed Trump in 2020, let alone 2016, is impossible to say – but considering Nixon campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1966, despite his thinking that Goldwater was a “strident,” “divisive,” and “inept” candidate, it’s not impossible to believe. What we can be certain about, however, is Nixon and Trump’s presidencies had certain parallels – not the least of which being how they both ended.
Almost fifty years apart, the final months of Nixon and Trump’s time in office were marred by congressional impeachment proceedings; possible criminal charges; angry protests; critical coverage from journalists Woodward and Bernstein; and, just this week, Trump was the first president since Nixon to not attend the swearing-in of his successor – both left the White House beforehand on Marine One in disgrace.
Why dredge up all this? Well, I’m convinced that having at times seen Nixon as a model president Trump will now see Nixon’s as a model post-presidency. Nixon lived another twenty years after resigning and used every day of those two decades to leverage his lingering influence as an elder statesman – and what’ll impress Trump is that history judges Nixon to have been somewhat successful in achieving his goal.
Nixon and Trump’s presidencies had certain parallels.
In his book In the Arena, Nixon characterized his post-presidential years as a second walk in the ‘wilderness’ – a Napoleonic emperor-in-exile hiatus from power not unlike what he’d experienced during much of the 1960s. He didn’t see the wilderness as purgatory for a pariah, but, rather, it was a burden borne by true leaders, an ordeal endured by great contemporaries Winston Churchill and General Charles de Gaulle.
Trump won’t think of it in the same high-minded terms. For him, Nixon’s precedent won’t be some sacred text to be studied but, rather, a roadmap to be followed. How can I get back? Nixon lost two elections! One close, the other crushing. But he came back to win the presidency in 1968! Then he resigned over Watergate but, soon enough, he’s back in New York getting good tables at 21, Lüchow's, Le Grenouille!
Trump will also love the route Nixon charted back through the wilderness: A quick decamping from Washington to California; an eventual, and purposeful, return to New York – “the fastest track in the world”; lots of golf for exercise; with everything bankrolled by selling books. Trump will substitute Florida for California, his Mar-a-Lago in place of Nixon’s La Casa Pacifica, but, otherwise, it all suits him perfectly.
Trump may hate being compared to Nixon now, but I bet he’ll eagerly compete with him soon enough. How many books did Nixon write? Ten? I’ve written twice that! What was his handicap in golf? Twelve? Mine’s two-point-eight! Where did he golf, San Clemente? That’s an hour from Trump National in Rancho Palos Verdes! How long before he got back to New York? Six years? I’ll be back there in less than three!
Better still? Trump doesn’t even have to read In the Arena, as Nixon recorded the audiobook himself. And it’s a good recording, too – albeit, of course, not among his most memorable. His rich, resonant baritone talking easily about how he recharged both his physical and emotional batteries: “Combined with occasional swims in the cold water of the Pacific and a few laps in a heated pool, the golf routine did the trick.”
Nixon said that in 1990, long after he’d been declared ‘back’ by Newsweek – all the more meaningful as it was owned by his old Washington Post nemesis Katharine Graham. It served his interests to portray himself as having earned his way back to a measure of respectability by rising above the fray and downplay the deliberateness and desperation which drove him. Always an ‘out’, Nixon needed to be allowed ‘in.’
And that’s the concern – Trump adopts Nixon’s post-presidential mission. Nixon said he was sustained in the wilderness by a firm resolve that he not be diverted from his goal of getting back in the arena. He fought hard to do so even though he couldn’t run again. Trump can run again and might do so just to keep fighting. Therein lies the danger. Nixon was returned to the wilderness; Trump was released into the wild.
Jack Hughes is a communications consultant based in Canada. His previous contributions to The Experiment include “Same of Thrones,” “Tippecanoe and Agnew Anew,” “Harris / Shuri 2020,” and “Firth and Firthiness,” among others. His inexplicably extensive writings on Dan Quayle are “The Unusual Suspect,” “The Unusual Suspect II,” and “The GOPfather.” His most recent contribution was “The Ballot of Bill McKay.” Connect with him on LinkedIn here.
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