--- title: John Dean Tells Samantha Bee Trump Is Worse Than Nixon description: Watergate conspirator John Dean said Trump is worse than Nixon during an appearance on 'Full Frontal with Samantha Bee'. canonical: https://time.com/4801177/john-dean-on-trump-and-nixon/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-01T15:54:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:05.686Z og:title: John Dean Tells Samantha Bee Trump Is Worse Than Nixon og:description: "We could have a war so easily" og:url: https://time.com/4801177/john-dean-on-trump-and-nixon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d366e8134fd6264/6988cfc68fd2eeacb635750f/johndean.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1266 og:image:height: 712 og:image:alt: JohnDean og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Dean Tells Samantha Bee Trump Is Worse Than Nixon twitter:description: "We could have a war so easily" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d366e8134fd6264/6988cfc68fd2eeacb635750f/johndean.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nixon Counsel John Dean Tells Samantha Bee Trump Is More Worrisome > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jun 1, 2017 3:54 PM UTC   by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jun 1, 2017 3:54 PM UTC [Samantha Bee](http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/4742710/samantha-bee/)‘s latest installment of _Full Frontal With Samantha Bee_ on Wednesday night was a blast from the past, as she channeled old school talk show host Dick Cavett to interview former White House counsel [John Dean](http://time.com/3083269/john-dean-why-nixon-risked-his-presidency/), a pivotal witness and target [in the Watergate scandal](http://time.com/3079519/the-fateful-vote-to-impeach/). Using a studio set that recalled Cavett’s old talk show (where Dean gave an infamous interview post-prison and Watergate scandal,) Bee pulled no punches when grilling Dean when holding President Donald Trump up against Dean’s former boss, President Richard Nixon. Cavett himself was on deck, ready to help with any aspect of the interview process that Bee might have missed Some of Trump’s critics have compared him to Nixon after [the firing of FBI Director James Comey](http://time.com/4799869/james-comey-testimony-donald-trump/), however Dean said he believed that Trump poses a larger threat to the country than his former boss. “Never did Nixon give me a knot in my stomach about what could happen to the country and the world under this guy’s leadership,” Dean said. Dean later elaborated, citing the possibility of war. “The more difficult problem for me is, once he’s up on the learning curve and we take this authoritarian personality and turn him loose, we could have a war so easily,” Dean said. Bee then issued a call to action to Trump’s White House Counsel to do their civic duty like Dean did before them, posing the question, “Who’s the John Dean of Trump?” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4801177/john-dean-on-trump-and-nixon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4801177/john-dean-on-trump-and-nixon/"},"headline":"Nixon Counsel John Dean Tells Samantha Bee Trump Is More Worrisome","datePublished":"2017-06-01T15:54:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:05.686Z","description":"\"We could have a war so easily\"","url":"https://time.com/4801177/john-dean-on-trump-and-nixon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night","Richard Nixon","Donald Trump","Watergate","samantha bee"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d366e8134fd6264/6988cfc68fd2eeacb635750f/johndean.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d366e8134fd6264/6988cfc68fd2eeacb635750f/johndean.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"JohnDean","caption":"","creditText":"","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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4801177/john-dean-on-trump-and-nixon/","name":"Nixon Counsel John Dean Tells Samantha Bee Trump Is More Worrisome"}}]}] ```