analysis

U.S. President Donald Trump said at a cabinet meeting last week: 'I have the right to do anything I want to do.'

Two presidents, two sentences, two different eras, two different implications of the sentiment – and one efficient way of looking at American politics today.

The first sentence, from Richard Nixon, three years after he left office: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”

The second sentence, from Donald Trump, at a cabinet meeting last week: “I have the right to do anything I want to do.”

Those two comments are separated by 48 years – and a chasm of context.

Mr. Nixon was seeking to justify his crimes in the Watergate scandal. His remarks were more a rationalization than a rationale. The sentence that followed in his 1977 interview with David F

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