Submitted for your consideration: Nixon was more popular in 1994 than he was in 1974. Of course he wasn’t going to run for office again, and was dead before the year was out, but people came to view him more calmly, without the anger and the disappointment. Posterity will have a more positive, appreciative view of Trump, even if academic historians won’t.
I wonder if deep down inside, Nixon and even Ford looked that much better after even one or two years of Carter and that’s probably what helped Reagan that good deal.
Nixon resigned his office & had to be pardoned by Ford. The circumstances are hardly similar.