Donald Trump may not know much history, but it is clear that Democratic Senator Dick Durbin does.
“What has taken place since January 20th 2025 would make even President Nixon recoil,” he told a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Richard Nixon famously resigned in 1974 to avoid being impeached amid the Watergate scandal, in which it was revealed the President had directed his administration to spy on and target his political enemies, the media and Hollywood celebrities.
In a famous interview in 1977, Nixon told British broadcaster David Frost that “when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal”.
A half-century later, critics say the actions of Trump during his second term are comparable to or worse than those of Nixon, who died in 1994.
What Nixon did in secret, the current President is doing in plain sight, they add.
Having campaigned to deliver “retribution” against his enemies and those of the Maga movement, Trump is using the Department of Justice to target those who have upset him.
These range from former FBI director and Trump critic James Comey; New York Attorney General Letitia James who oversaw the investigation into the business of the President and his sons; and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, who led the prosecution in Trump’s first impeachment trial.
Schiff and James have been accused of mortgage fraud – allegations they say are without merit – while Comey was charged with making false statements and obstruction of justice.
On Wednesday, Comey pleaded not guilty when he made his first appearance in a court near Washington DC.
Prosecuting his enemies
Many countries have prosecutorial systems that stand largely independent of the government of the day. Britain for instance, has the Crown Prosecution Service.
While America’s Justice Department is part of the executive branch and technically under the direction of the President, since Watergate there has been a tradition of independence.
Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, faced intense criticism from Democrats for moving too slowly with the criminal charges against Trump, including Trump’s holding onto classified documents and trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump has displayed no such qualms. He believes that as President, he has the power to do whatever he wants: a belief in the unitary power of the presidency reinforced by a split decision of the Supreme Court in July last year that said he pretty much had immunity for acts committed while he occupies the White House.
Stunningly, Trump is not trying to hide his willingness to use the government to target his enemies. Last month, he posted a message on social media directed at “Pam”.
“What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” Trump wrote. “We can’t delay any longer.”
Pam Bondi, his attorney general, spent hours on Tuesday refusing to answer accusations the President was directing the work of the DOJ.
Worrying times
These are anxious times for America. Trump has targeted universities, law firms and media organisations that have upset him. The DOJ has brought charges against many who oppose him, such as former UN ambassador John Bolton.
Trump has deployed troops and the National Guard to Democratic-run cities to deal with purported crime and lawlessness problems that do not match the reality on the ground, with the moves opposed by local leaders.
Courts have ruled his actions are illegal. Many see it as creeping authoritarianism and a challenge to democracy.
A week ago, Trump and his Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, gathered top military commanders and told them the troops under their command would soon be deployed to US cities to take on the “enemy within”.
When White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt was asked if what was happening amounted to plain and simple retribution, she claimed it was accountability for the way the DOJ had been used against Trump under Biden.
“It is not weaponising the Department of Justice to demand accountability,” she said.
There are crucial differences between what Trump is doing and what happened with Nixon more than 50 years ago. For one, Trump has already been impeached, twice, and it did not stop him being re-elected.
The other is that as the Watergate scandal grew during the summer of 1974 and it became clear Nixon could not avoid impeachment, three senior Republicans, including Arizona’s Barry Goldwater, an elder statesman of the party, visited him at the White House and told him he’d lost the party’s support. Nixon resigned the following afternoon.
Where are those wise voices now?
Who among Republicans would dare tell Trump his actions have gone beyond all political precedents, that his excesses, be it the deployment of the National Guard or the scenes of federal agents slamming women to the ground as part of their immigration crackdown, threaten the party’s fortunes in next year’s midterm elections?
The short answer is that there is nobody. Indeed, with their silence, Republicans on Capitol Hill have been utterly complicit with whatever Trump has done and may do in the future.
