claim: Former President Richard Nixon sent a letter to Trump predicting he would be a successful politician whenever he decided to run for office.
origin: Within a day of DonaldÂ Trumpâ€™s election to the presidency on 8 November 2016, a number of news outlets reported the existence of aÂ letter allegedly writtenÂ by former President Richard M. Nixon in 1987 that seemed to predict Trumpâ€™s political ascendancy. Charley Lanyon ofÂ New York magazine couchedÂ it thus: < The Trump presidency might have caught a majority of Americans, pollsters, and pundits off guard, but at least one political insider saw it coming way back in 1987: Richard Nixon. Well not Nixon exactly, but his wife Pat. Let us explain. Thirty years ago, Pat Nixon caught Donald Trump on Phil Donahueâ€™s TV show â€” because of course she did â€” and she was very impressed with what she saw. So impressed that her husband, the former president, went out of his way to write the young tycoon a note. > Lanyon said Nixonâ€™s letter, addressed â€œDear Donaldâ€ and dated 21 November 1987, creditedÂ Pat Nixon for predictingÂ that â€œwhenever you decide to run for office you will be a winner!â€ It was signed â€œWith warm regards, sincerely, RMN.â€ AÂ scan of the original letter was tweeted on 9 November 2016 by the National Archive Foundation, attributing the image toÂ the Richard Nixon Foundation in Yorba Linda, California (with whom snopes.com has confirmed its authenticity): < In 1987, the Nixons predicted @realDonaldTrump would win whenever he ran for office. Photo courtesy @nixonfoundation #PresidentElectTrump pic.twitter.com/hICGWZL6MJ â€” Archives Foundation (@archivesfdn) November 9, 2016 > The letter was first made public in Michael Dâ€™Antonioâ€™s 2015 biography of Trump, Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, published by Macmillan. Dâ€™Antonio wrote that Trump had been making a round of national media appearances to promote his just-released book, The Art of the Deal, when Pat Nixon saw him on Phil Donahueâ€™s afternoon talk show and remarked on his performance to the former president.Â Trump recalled receiving Nixonâ€™s letter in a post-election appearance on the Fox News Channel: < â€œIt was just amazing that he wrote it,â€ Trump said. Trump revealed that he did not know Nixon well, but he would receive letters from the former president. â€œIt was very interesting,â€ Trump said. â€œHe always wanted me to run for office.â€ > The Fox News segment included a clip of Trumpâ€™s 1987Â Donahue appearance, during which he made remarks about U.S.Â policy that prefigured standsÂ he would take 29 years later during his presidential campaign: < COX: Of course, when you look at that letter that my grandfather wrote, he wrote that over 25 years ago. And I think he was very impressed with the charisma of Donald Trump and how Donald Trump was able to present himself on TV. And certainly when you see the primaries and all the victories that Donald Trumpâ€™s had in the primaries, we see a true political talent. Donald Trump certainly has the ability to mesmerize a crowd, to galvanize people behind him, and weâ€™ve seen that play out throughout the primaries. â€¦ CUOMO: Do you think your grandfather would have gotten behind Donald Trump knowing what people now know about him? COX: You know, I think itâ€™s â€”Â itâ€™s â€”Â you know, of course, I donâ€™t want to speak for my grandfather. I know that he would be a supporter of the Republican nominee because he would feel that the Republican nominee, or Donald Trump in this case, would be supporting freedom for the American people. And what I mean by that is, lower taxes, reducing spending, and then having a strong foreign policy. Those are the tenants of the Republican Party. Thatâ€™s what Donald Trump will represent. And he would be for the Republican nominee. And he would be advising Donald Trump. > In any case, the Nixon-Trump connection took on additional (and considerably darker) shades of meaning three months into Trumpâ€™s presidency, as the administration became mired in scandal due to allegationsÂ ofÂ links between the Trump campaign and Russia and Trumpâ€™s firing of FBI DirectorÂ James Comey. For many, the latter conjured up imagesÂ of theÂ Watergate scandal and Nixonâ€™s â€œSaturday Night Massacreâ€ firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox, which led to the resignations of theÂ attorney general and deputy attorney general, impeachment proceedings againstÂ Nixon, and ultimately to his resignation. The ironies did not go unnoticed on social media: < Nixon/Trump letter. From a one corrupt @POTUS to another. Cool find. RT @BeschlossDC @maddow https://t.co/Ihwh94MbNu â€” James McPherson (@JimBMcPherson) May 17, 2017 > Â