‘Nixonmaxxing’ Is More than a Meme

Richard Nixon is back, in vibe form.

Multiple mainstream outlets have reported on young conservatives’ admiration for the disgraced 37th president. Because this is the summer of 2026, the phenomenon has unfortunately been dubbed “Nixonmaxxing.”

This new push to rehabilitate Nixon isn’t so much about his actual record. There aren’t hordes of young conservatives posting about the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, or the decision to embrace the People’s Republic of China. Instead, Nixon’s comeback in recent months has been heavy on Zoomerfied social-media hype videos, many of them churned out by the Richard Nixon Foundation. One emblematic example shows Mad Men protagonist Don Draper noting his similarities to Nixon, then switches to Nixon footage as a Drake song blares in the background.

If you’ve seen these videos, you might be wondering what on Earth is going on. One answer comes from the writer and conservative activist Chirstopher Rufo. “The right’s rediscovery of Richard Nixon is not about particular policies—some good, some bad—but about the aesthetic, the attitude, and the narrative of the self-made man who won 49 states on behalf of the silent majority, and was taken down in a deep state coup,” he explained on X.

That “coup” is better known as Watergate, in which an inept Nixon White House goon squad tried to bug the chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1972 only to be caught by a security guard working the graveyard shift.