Elizabeth Drew: “Presidents Donald Trump and Richard Nixon both left Washington in helicopters and ignominy, awash in financial problems and their customary self-pity. Both were above-average paranoiacs who felt (with some justification) that the elites looked down on them and that enemies everywhere sought to undermine them; they despised the press, exploited racism for political purposes and used inept outside agents (the ‘plumbers,’ Rudy Giuliani) to carry out their more nefarious plots. Neither was inclined to let aides rein them in. Both were impeached for trying to manipulate the opposition party’s nomination contest. Both degraded the presidency. Both came unglued at the end.”
“But then, astonishingly, Nixon rehabilitated himself. He methodically worked his way into the rarefied circles where he coveted approval, and he won over a large if far-from-universal segment of the public. Nixon’s post-presidency was a quest to make himself respectable again — and it worked. He landed in 1974 at his Spanish-style San Clemente, Calif., home essentially friendless, deeply depressed, unwell (a bad case of phlebitis), and beset by huge legal fees and back taxes. Through wit, grit, wiliness and determination he wrought one of the greatest resurrections in American politics.”
“If he could do it, can Trump?”
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