President Nixon's former White House counsel said Friday that President Trump Donald John TrumpHR McMaster says president's policy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is 'unwise' Cast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response MORE makes the only U.S. president who resigned from office "look good" following the publication of excerpts from an explosive new book on Trump's early days in the White House.

Former White House counsel and CNN contributor John Dean tweeted Friday that Richard Nixon "was competent, just dishonest" as opposed to Trump, who Dean says is both.

"Pix sent me from Fire & Fury. Delighted I trouble Trump when comparing his presidency to Watergate. Getting him to see that was one of my hopes in becoming a CNN contributor. But I never figured Trump would make Nixon look good — at least RN wasn’t incompetent, just dishonest," Dean tweeted.

Pix sent me from Fire & Fury. Delighted I trouble Trump when comparing his presidency to Watergate. Getting him to see that was one of my hopes in becoming a CNN contributor. But I never figured Trump would make Nixon look good — at least RN wasn’t incompetent, just dishonest. pic.twitter.com/PTpRicHjYa — John Dean (@JohnWDean) January 4, 2018

Dean's comments come days after excerpts from Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" published in The Guardian and New York Magazine show Trump having an internal struggle to protect himself from the Justice Department's Russia investigation.

Among the eye-raising anecdotes is one that details White House Counsel Don McGahn's efforts to lobby Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, which Sessions did last year.

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Democrats and other critics of the president have leaped on this excerpt as evidence that Trump attempted to obstruct justice by interfering with the investigation, which is now helmed by special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE.

The White House issued statements Thursday dismissing the contents of the book as fabrications based on anonymous sources.

“It's pretty obvious right now that there are many discrepancies," White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told CNN's Erin Burnett in an interview. "This is full of false information, inaccuracies, and quite frankly, this author is, quite frankly, a crackpot, fake news fantasy fiction writer and it’s been proven time and time again."