U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on "combatting the opioid crisis" in a speech at Manchester Community College in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Trump, pictured at the opioid crisis summit on Monday, has been likened to disgraced former president Richard Nixon for likening the FBI Russia probe to a ‘witch-hunt’ (EPA)

Donald Trump has been compared to disgraced former president Richard Nixon after he branded the Russia probe a ‘total WITCH HUNT.’

The President’s latest Twitter invective was posted Monday morning, with the full mini-diatribe reading: ‘A total WITCH HUNT with massive conflicts of interest.’

Shortly afterwards, journalist Kyle Griffin tweeted it next to a 1973 Washington Post article with the headline ‘Nixon Sees “Witch-Hunt,” insiders say.’

The story, written by famed reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, came shortly before Nixon became the only U.S. president in history to resign from office.

He did so in 1974 to avoid almost-certain impeachment and removal from office after the Watergate scandal revealed members of his party had broken into Democratic party HQ in Washington, D.C.

9/28/1969-Washington, DC-ORIGINAL CAPTION READS: President Richard Nixon is shown in a close-up shot.
Nixon resigned in 1974 to stop being impeached after it was revealed his party had engaged in dirty tricks – including breaking into Democratic party HQ in the Watergate complex
(Original Caption) Richard Nixon, his wife Pat and daughter Tricia boarding plane after his resignation. 8/9/1974
Nixon is the only U.S. president ever to have resigned

Trump has ramped up his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in recent days.

On Sunday he tweeted: ‘Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans?

‘Another Dem recently added…does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!’

The day before he wrote: ‘The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime.

‘It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!”

He is said to want to fire Mueller, although Trump’s own lawyers have backpedaled on his rants and insist he wants no such thing.

Doing so could seriously wound Trump’s credibility as president, with even South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham warning doing so would be ‘the beginning of the end of (Trump’s) presidency’.

But others think Trump has a more underhand motive, and that he merely wishes to try and discredit Mueller so no-one takes the eventual findings of his probe seriously.

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