President Pervez Musharraf, of Pakistan, declares martial law.  In justifying this usurpation of power, Musharraf invokes Lincoln as his precedent: “As an idealist, Abraham Lincoln had one consuming passion during that time of crisis, and this was to preserve the Union … towards that end, he broke laws, he violated the Constitution, he usurped arbitrary power, he trampled individual liberties.”

       Postscript: Within a year Musharraf resigned in the face of impeachment.

       [added 5/25/2024] Thanks to Thomas DiLorenzo for this entry.