With talk of President-elect Donald Trump and his pick for FBI director Kash Patel reportedly assembling an “enemies list” of people to target in their incoming administration, I can’t help reflecting on my own experience being named and targeted in a similar scenario, back in the 1970s.

After serving as administrative assistant to New York City Mayor John Lindsay, I decided to switch lanes. I left City Hall and opened a restaurant called Jimmy’s on 52nd Street with Dick Aurelio, who served alongside me in the Lindsay administration as first deputy mayor. (Journalist Jimmy Breslin was going to invest with us, but he had a television contract at one of the local networks and they didn’t want his name being associated with a gin joint — but we kept the name anyway.)

Suddenly everyone at the bar starts yelling at me, “Sid! They’re talking about you on the TV!”

Located next to the 21 Club, Jimmy’s had a thriving scene with a politically connected crowd. Local elected officials were always in and out the place, including Tip O’Neill, Sen. Jacob Javits and Mario Cuomo, the future governor. Other famous personalities would hang around the bar when they were in town, including political commentator William Buckley. The televisions at the bar were always turned on, and we even had an Associated Press ticker near the door.

In June 1973, the Watergate hearings were being broadcast live. One day, suddenly everyone at the bar starts yelling at me, “Sid! They’re talking about you on the TV!” Then-White House Counsel John Dean had just testified that President Richard Nixon kept an enemies list, and I was No. 12 on that list.

The phones quickly lit up. Every reporter in town was calling the restaurant trying to get ahold of me for an interview. Every TV reporter in New York and beyond, and also my mother.

Breslin gets through to me first. Tells me he wants the exclusive. That I had just become a “national figure.” I worked out some of the details, promised I’d talk to him first, then called back my mother, who was in Florida and immediately asks, “What did you do?! Everyone is calling me saying the president doesn’t like you!” I calmed her down and went back to try to figure out what the hell was going on.

Keep in mind, I am 32 years old at the time, the son of a candy store owner from Queens. And here I am on the enemies list of the president of the United States. It was surreal.

At first, we had a blast with it. That Saturday night we hosted an “enemies’ ball” on the downstairs floor of the restaurant that included those of us who opposed the president. But after some time, it all began to take a turn. Suddenly, the IRS starts investigating me, claiming I owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes in FICA for employee fees. Tack on some late fees and penalties and before you knew it, they were claiming I owed close to a million dollars. The state of New York also came after me. I was accused of embezzling funds by state Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz, who worked closely alongside Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. My friends in the attorney general’s office told me they had no choice. Federal agents showed up at the apartment building of the young woman I was dating at the time. They questioned her doormen and wanted to know about my comings and goings.

Although in many ways it remains my proudest moment, the fallout was difficult to deal with. I became a target of the national government virtually overnight. The force of government coming after an individual like that is not a fun place to be.

Throughout my life I have kept asking myself, how did this all come about? Why me? In a nation of more than 200 million people at the time, why did Nixon see me and Lindsay as a such a threat? For whatever reason they couldn’t get to Lindsay, so they got to me. The next best thing, I suppose.

In the notations I was described on the enemies list as “Lindsay’s top personal aide: a first class S.O.B., wheeler-dealer and suspected bagman. Positive results would really shake the Lindsay camp, and Lindsay’s plan to capture the youth vote. Davidoff in charge.”

It was a bit of a merit of honor for me in the long term, but, man, that period was rough. Eventually, a judge threw out the indictment. I’ve since gone on to live a very full and positive life, and I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. I think it should absolutely be carved into my gravestone: “He was lucky enough to be on Nixon’s enemies list.”

Still, I wouldn’t wish that kind of trouble on anybody. And I’m not sure anyone who finds themselves on Trump’s list will feel as lucky as I do, this many years on.

Sid Davidoff

Sid Davidoff is the founding partner of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, chair of their government relations practice and a member of the Economic Development & Tax Incentives law practice. Previously he serving as administrative assistant to New York City Mayor John Lindsay and has represented former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as an ex-officio trustee on the Board of Trustees of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Something about this Christmas season feels a bit off. The carols are playing and the shops are bustling, but the airwaves are silent. Something is missing …

The war on Christmas!

Remember the big deal it was every year when a war on Christmas was called out? Debates about the placements of Nativity scenes were considered a part of that war; a television host declared that Santa Claus could only be white. The stockings were stuffed with books like “The War on Christmas,” and countless hours were devoted to fake outrage that people said “Happy holidays” and not “Merry Christmas.”

Remember the big deal it was every year when a war on Christmas was called out?

What were the complaints that there was a war on Christmas in America about?

They were just another part of the culture wars deployed by conservative Republicans and conservative Christians (Protestant and Catholic) to complain that Christianity was getting short shrift from the public, from merchants and especially in schools. Much like the holiday Festival — which these conservatives would hate in principle because it is secular but agree with in practice — complaints about a war on Christmas were an annual end-of-year airing of grievances. It was a time amid holiday celebrations to advocate for the primacy of Christianity over other religious traditions and to rail against the perceived (and sometimes real) threats to take down religious displays of the holiday.

This year, Republicans and conservative Christians have dispensed with whining about a war on Christmas in anticipation of the second coming of their political savior, Donald Trump, into the White House. According to a YouGov poll, the percentage of Americans who believe there is a war on Christmas has fallen since December 2022, from 39% to 23%. Among Republicans, that percentage has dropped from 59% to 36%.

While that is a picture of America overall, that doesn’t mean that local skirmishes aren’t happening in the Christmas wars. For the first time, a group called Minnesota Satanists has a holiday displayat the State Capitol in St. Paul, and Republicans have criticized Gov. Tim Walz for its existence. Walz doesn’t sign off on such displays, and his office released a statement that reads: “The Governor does not agree with the display and did not approve it. But the First Amendment means that he does not police speech in the State Capitol. That’s true whether it’s a religious display, a political protest, or a Minnesotan advocating for a policy.”

The percentage of Americans who believe there is a war on Christmas has fallen since December 2022, from 39% to 23%.

The Star Tribune newspaper reports that the display was knocked over one day last week and temporarily removed but was put back in place the next day. Earlier this month, a Satanic Temple holiday display of Baphomet was vandalized at the New Hampshire State House.

Fights about Nativity scenes at state capitols and other public places have a long history in America, and they are often used to promote Christianity in the public sphere. But when people who aren’t Christian, including satanists, demand equal time, well, things don’t usually turn out too well.

This year’s Vatican Nativity scene, designed by two artists from Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, was criticized because it shows the baby Jesus lying on a Palestinian keffiyeh. Usually, the baby Jesus isn’t placed into the Vatican Nativity scene until Christmas Eve, but it was put there earlyto show donors and others what the finished product looked like. The baby was returned on Christmas Eve, as is the custom, but the keffiyeh was gone.

The debate at the Vatican is a reminder that there are real wars going on around the world this Christmas season.

The debate at the Vatican is a reminder that there are real wars going on around the world this Christmas season: in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and many other places. This isn’t a peaceful time, by any estimation. Pope Francis is expected to stand on a balcony on Dec. 25 to give his “City and World” (to the city of Rome and the world) message. No doubt it will include references to the wars around the world and especially the one between Israel and Hamas. After all, that is in a region where Christian pilgrims from around the world go to celebrate Christmas. The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem is encouragingChristians to come despite the war, but it remains to be seen how they get there with so many airline carriers cancelingflights.

Declarations that there’s a war on Christmas can be political or philosophical, but most of all they’re a utilitarian means of control. They are a soft, uncivil but nonviolent way of airing grievances. But this Christmas season, it’s time to focus on the real wars around us and work for peace.