(CNN) It feels like President Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to invite the comparison with President Richard Nixon -- and most people don't mean it as a compliment. President Trump decided to fire the FBI director heading an investigation into the President's campaign and its potential connections to Russia. Historians and political pundits instantly invoked the Saturday Night Massacre, when Nixon ordered the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was investigating the Watergate break-in scandal, and the attorney general and his deputy resigned rather than follow orders. Then, as if President Trump wanted to underline a point, he moved forward with an Oval Office meeting and photo-op with Henry Kissinger, best known as Nixon's national security adviser.Julian Zelizer: As he moves forward, President Trump might want to think about the way he talks about "tapes"Trump should remember how the revelation of tapes in 1973 damaged President Nixon, Zelizer says
Starting with President Franklin Roosevelt and continuing through _, presidents -- motivated by everything from a desire to keep accurate records to counter press attacks to a wish to preserve history -- taped telephone conversations and Oval Office meetings.