Former President Trump on Sunday compared himself to former President Nixon, touting the support he has in Congress and within his party as he weathered impeachment proceedings and now faces ongoing legal battles.
“I’ll never forget: When that happened, we had such great support. Nixon had no support. You know, he just didn’t have support. He was very, very tough with people. I get along with people. I mean, I have great Jim Jordan, and all these congressmen are great. They’re really incredible people,” Trump said in an interview with Mark Levin, aired on Fox News.
“Nixon didn’t get along with the people in Congress. He didn’t get along with the senators. But the fact is, we have some great people in the Republican Party, but I get along with them, and they stuck together,” Trump said.
Trump, who was impeached twice during his time as president, lost his 2020 reelection bid and is now running to retake the White House in 2024, appeared to say on Sunday that Nixon’s “biggest regret” was that he “didn’t fight” when confronted with the 1970s Watergate scandal, which prompted his resignation.
“They went over there one evening, Barry Goldwater headed up the delegation and they had some senators and some congressmen and they went over to tell him he’s got to get out and he left the following day or the following morning. And his biggest regret was that he didn’t fight, because it wasn’t really like him. And I find that very interesting,” Trump said.
Trump was appearing on Levin’s program to promote his new book, “Letters to Trump,” which includes messages from top pop culture and political figures ranging from talk show host Oprah Winfrey to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“He was a very tough guy. He was — I guess some people would say this about me too — he was his own worst enemy,” Trump said of Nixon. “I mean, I can say that a little bit about myself, much less so than people think, I will say.”
Trump now faces legal woes in New York after the Manhattan District Attorney hit the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, in which Trump was running for president.
Now a 2024 candidate, Trump is the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges. He’s also the subject of special counsel probes from the Justice Department into his handling of classified materials and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, as well as a district attorney probe in Georgia into election interference attempts in the state.