Donald Trump doubled down on comparing his own legal troubles in the US to those of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny during a Fox News town hall.
When asked about Navalny’s death in a Russian prison, Trump acknowledged it was a “sad situation” but quickly pivoted to discussing his own criminal indictments related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Navalny is a very sad situation and he’s very brave, he was a very brave guy,” Trump said.
“He went back, 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 could happen, and it did happen.”
He asserted the prosecutions against him are politically motivated, suggesting the US is becoming like Russia and other authoritarian states.
“And it’s a horrible thing, but it’s happening in our country, too,” he added, noting that his indictments prove the U.S. is “turning into a communist country in many ways.”
Trump went on to compare his $355 million civil fraud penalty to Navalny’s situation, calling it a “form of communism, of fascism.”
“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.”
“It is a form of Navalny,” Trump said. “It is a form of communism, of fascism.”
He did not directly answer whether he would post a bond to appeal the penalty.
“If I were losing in the polls, they wouldn’t even be talking about me and I wouldn’t have had any legal fees,” Trump said. “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.’”
Trump has long praised Vladimir Putin while refusing to criticize the Russian leader’s crackdown on dissent.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” Trump wrote, condemning the “CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”
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