Vance says Trump and Nixon were targeted by 'deep state' forces

Theory Briefing

• Vance publicly grouped Trump and Nixon together as victims of coordinated federal government opposition, reviving a decades-old political grievance.
• The "deep state" framing recast career federal officials not as neutral civil servants but as partisan actors with the power to remove presidents.
• Invoking Nixon is a double-edged move — he resigned amid a criminal scandal, so the comparison invites as much scrutiny as it deflects.
• The argument mirrors a broader pattern where institutional checks on executive power get reframed as illegitimate conspiracies against elected leaders.