--- title: Donald Trump, Sally Yates and the Saturday Night Massacre description: What to know about the 1973 Saturday Night Massacre to which Donald Trump's firing of Acting Attorney General Sally Yates is being compared canonical: https://time.com/4654930/saturday-night-massacre-donald-trump/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-31T17:19:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:02:44.459Z article:section: History og:title: Donald Trump, Sally Yates and the Saturday Night Massacre og:description: The 'Monday Night Massacre' comparison isn't perfect, but here's what to know og:url: https://time.com/4654930/saturday-night-massacre-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc292a56a22abcafc/6988b7f90b72e367666ec762/nixon2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Nixon Tapes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump, Sally Yates and the Saturday Night Massacre twitter:description: The 'Monday Night Massacre' comparison isn't perfect, but here's what to know twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc292a56a22abcafc/6988b7f90b72e367666ec762/nixon2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How President Trump's Firing of Sally Yates Compares to Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jan 31, 2017 5:19 PM UTC  A timeline display from 1973 discusses the Saturday Night Massacre and shows a copy of TIME magazine, at a Watergate exhibit at the Nixon Library in 2011. A timeline display from 1973 discusses the Saturday Night Massacre and shows a copy of TIME magazine, at a Watergate exhibit at the Nixon Library in 2011. Gina Ferazzi—LA Times via Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jan 31, 2017 5:19 PM UTC When President Donald Trump [fired acting attorney general Sally Yates](http://time.com/4654665/president-trump-sally-yates-immigration-order/) on Monday, after she [refused to defend](http://time.com/4654533/acting-attorney-general-sally-yates-immigration-ban-donald-trump/) his executive order on immigration, the late-night shakeup was dubbed the “Monday Night Massacre” by [some](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/01/30/schumer%5Fon%5Fmonday%5Fnight%5Fmassacre%5Fby%5Ftrump%5Fsally%5Fyates%5Fa%5Fprofile%5Fin%5Fcourage.html) who drew[ comparisons](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3eJ24cWMAQy-uk.jpg) to former President Richard Nixon’s infamous 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre.” On Saturday, Oct. 20, 1973, Nixon ordered U.S. Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had been appointed to investigate the [Watergate scandal](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,907096,00.html) and who had objected to Nixon’s refusal to obey a court order to turn over evidence in the case. Both Richardson and Ruckelshaus refused Nixon’s order and resigned. Solicitor General Robert Bork then became acting attorney general and complied, firing Cox—and dismantling his investigatory operation—and setting off a firestorm of criticism. In subsequent cover stories that year, TIME called it [“one of the gravest constitutional crises](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-10-29/page/14/)” in White House history and a key moment in “[the most tumultuous week of modern U.S. political history](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-11-05/page/15/).” “In these historic events, the President was acting in direct defiance of a court order,” TIME [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-10-29/page/14/). “By abolishing the independent arm of the Justice Department that was created at the insistence of the Senate, Nixon was challenging the Congress that holds the power to impeach and try him for violating his oath of office.” “Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people to decide,” Cox [said](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-10-29/page/14/) at the time. Both the Trump and Nixon incidents involved the controversial firing or resignation of Justice Department leaders who had raised questions about the [legality of presidential orders](http://time.com/4654787/trump-immigration-discrimination-lawsuits/) and refused to comply, and both took place at odd hours. But there are also significant differences between the two situations. Yates, who was appointed deputy attorney general under former President Barack Obama, became acting attorney general this month and was only supposed to lead the department until the Senate confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for Attorney General. Trump’s replacement of Yates was an effort to enforce his controversial immigration order, which halted the U.S. refugee program and temporarily banned immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. Trump announced that Yates would be replaced by Dana Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and said that she had “betrayed the Department of Justice” in refusing to defend the order. The 1973 episode, however, went deeper. Richardson and Ruckelshaus had been officially appointed to serve in Nixon’s administration. In firing Cox, Nixon defied a court order and interfered with an independent investigation into a crime, a controversial move that escalated the push toward his ultimate resignation and sparked fundamental questions about the institutions of the U.S. government. “To call into question the vital issue of whether its own Government recognizes the primacy of a system of laws over political expediency and personal power is to rock the nation to its philosophic foundations,” TIME wrote in 1973\. “It is not any imagined White House enemies in the press, the courts or the Congress that have created this situation. Richard Nixon, through his reckless deeds of last week, did it all alone.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4654930/saturday-night-massacre-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4654930/saturday-night-massacre-donald-trump/"},"headline":"How President Trump's Firing of Sally Yates Compares to Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre","datePublished":"2017-01-31T17:19:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:02:44.459Z","description":"The 'Monday Night Massacre' comparison isn't perfect, but here's what to know","url":"https://time.com/4654930/saturday-night-massacre-donald-trump/","keywords":["politics","White House","justice","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc292a56a22abcafc/6988b7f90b72e367666ec762/nixon2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc292a56a22abcafc/6988b7f90b72e367666ec762/nixon2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nixon Tapes","caption":"A timeline display from 1973 reveals the Saturday Night Massacre and Time magazine asking for forme","creditText":"Gina Ferazzi—LA Times via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4654930/saturday-night-massacre-donald-trump/","name":"How President Trump's Firing of Sally Yates Compares to Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre"}}]}] ```