Trump compares himself to Navalny, arguing legal cases against him are ‘a form of communism or fascism’

The death of Alexei Navalny has been used by Donald Trump as an excuse to play the martyr. The former U.S. president has compared the Russian dissident’s death with his legal woes and so-called political persecution at the hands of his Democratic rivals. On Monday, Trump shared a post on his social network, Truth Social, in which he alluded to the death of the dissident without a single mention of the Kremlin. And on Tuesday, the front-runner to win the Republican nomination took advantage of a meeting with voters in the City Council of Greenville (South Carolina) to again claim that the four indictments against him, as well as the several civil lawsuits he is facing, are the product of the Joe Biden administration’s attempt to derail his bid to win the White House.

The town hall event in Greenville was moderated, recorded and later broadcast in prime time on Fox News, the conservative network that acts as a loudspeaker for the Republicans. During the event, Trump — who on Friday was sentenced by a New York judge to pay $355 million for business fraud — lamented the death of Navalny, which President Biden and other Western leaders blame on the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Even some Republicans from the old guard, who were the majority before Trumpist took over the party, blamed the Kremlin for the opponent’s death.

“Navalny is a very sad situation, and he is a very brave, he was a very brave,” Trump said in response to a question from the Fox News journalist. “He went back [to Russia in 2021 after recovering in Berlin from an attempted poisoning with Novichok nerve agent], he could have stayed away, and frankly probably would have been a lot better off staying away and talking from outside of the country as opposed to having to go back in, because people thought that [his death] could happen and it did happen.”

“And it’s a horrible thing. But it’s happening in our country too,” added Trump, who suggested that his indictments — which include two cases stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat — are proof that the United States is “turning into a communist country in many ways.”

“I got indicted four times [...] all because of the fact that I’m in politics,” Trump said. “They indicted me on things that are so ridiculous.”

The other two cases against Trump are over hush money paid to a porn actress so that she would to keep quiet about an alleged extramarital affair during his 2016 presidential campaign, and his mishandling of classified documents that he unlawfully took from the White House when he left the presidency.

But what seems to be hurting Trump the most, right now, is the $355 million fine he was ordered to pay on Friday after Judge Arthur Engoron found that he had fraudulently inflated his assets to obtain favorable rates from banks and insurers. With interest, the amount comes to $454 million — a figure that leaves Trump with almost zero liquidity. He will have to pay the penalty within 30 days to appeal the decision. “It is a form of Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism,” he said of the case.

After alarming NATO and the U.S.’s allies in Europe by promising to allow Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that did not meet defense spending targets, Trump made no mention of Putin at Tuesday’s town hall meeting. This is nothing new. During his presidency, Trump was more complimentary than critical of the Kremlin’s strongman. The context, however, is different: Ukraine has suffered a considerable setback in the war, losing the city of Avdiivka, which is now under Russian control, while Washington’s promised aid to Kyiv is hanging by a thread in the House of Representatives due to Republican opposition.

Trump did mention Putin last week after the Russian leader said he preferred Biden to Trump, calling the Democrat more predictable. Trump said he took the statement as a compliment. The November election is shaping up to be another showdown between Biden and Trump. Even if the Republican were convicted in one of the pending trials — the first starts on March 25 in New York — this would not prevent him from running for office.

When asked if he could become a “potential political prisoner” like Navalny — another softball question from the Fox News moderator — the Republican presidential hopeful avoided answering. “If I were losing in the polls, they wouldn’t even be talking about me and I wouldn’t have had any legal fees,” he answered. The Trump campaign spent $50 million on legal fees last year. “If I were out, I think — although they hate me so much, I think if I got out they’d still, ‘let’s pursue this guy, we can’t stand this guy.’”

Tuesday’s town hall meeting comes four days before Trump competes against Nikki Haley in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary. The Fox journalist opened the event by offering Trump an opportunity to explain or clarify the only reference he had made so far to Navalny’s death, the aforementioned post in Truth Social published on Monday. Without mentioning Putin or the family of the Russian dissident, Trump wrote: “The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our country.” He went on to claim that “radical left politicians, prosecutors, and judges leading us down a path to destruction” and repeat his false claim that the 2020 election was rigged.

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