No, Trump is Not Navalny
Donald Trump and his defenders are drawing a perverse comparison.
Last week, when the world received word that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died in a Siberian prison camp at the age of 47, one of my early thoughts was how prominent leaders of the Republican Party of yesteryear would have responded to the news. They assuredly would have condemned Vladimir Putin for Navalny’s death, loudly and unequivocally, as has been done with other high-profile Russian dissidents in the past.
A few did just that.
“This is another day where we underscore the fact that Vladimir Putin is not a good guy, that he’s an evil guy,” said Sen. Mitt Romney. “Not only did he brutally attack a sovereign nation, Ukraine, and try going into its capital and take over the country, but he also brutally murders people within his own country.”
“Navalny laid down his life fighting for the freedom of the country he loved,” wrote Sen. Thom Tillis. “Putin is a murderous, paranoid dictator…”
Nikki Haley called Navalny a “hero”, saying that “Putin has done to him what Putin does to all of his opponents — he kills them.”
But as I’m often reminded, whether it’s by national polling, primary-elections, popular right-wing punditry, or just enthusiastic Trump supporters (who revel in pointing it out), such individuals no longer represent the heart and soul of today’s GOP.
Those who command the most energy and influence — the people who’ve spent the last few years fawning over Putin, drawing moral equivalence between the U.S. and Russia, romanticizing autocracy, and portraying Ukraine as a villain unworthy of our support against its Russian invader — fell largely silent on the matter.
I was curious how they would eventually respond, but before long their underlings began providing a few hints.
“Navalny=Trump,” Dinesh D'Souza tweeted. “The plan of the Biden regime and the Democrats is to ensure their leading political opponent dies in prison. There’s no real difference between the two cases.”
“While Democrats continue to pursue the imprisonment of their top political opponent, the death of 47-year-old Putin opponent Navalny in prison in Russia is a grim reminder of how evil the strategy is,” wrote Mollie Hemingway.
“Navalnys death in prison is a brutal reminder that jailing your political opponents is inhumane and a violation of every principle of a free society,” said Newt Gingrich. “Watch the Biden Administration speak out against Putin and his jailing of his leading political opponent while Democrats in four different jurisdictions try to turn President Trump into an American Navalny. The hypocrisy and corruption of the left is astonishing.”
Lee Zeldin, former U.S. congressman and outspoken Trump ally, wrote, “As the world reflects on the murder of Alexei Navalny at the hands of Putin, it’s worth remembering that Democrats are actively doing Biden’s bidding as they also try to imprison his chief political opponent, Donald Trump, remove him from the ballot, and ensure he dies in prison.”
Days later, Trump took a break from promoting $400 spray-painted, Trump-branded sneakers to finally break his silence on Navalny. He refused to condemn Putin for Navalny’s death (or for anything else), but wholeheartedly endorsed the narrative laid out by his acolytes.
On Truth Social, he posted:
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction. Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024.”
How very brave.
The analogy, of course, is perverse. Trump is not a heroic political dissident, living under an oppressive regime, who’s been literally poisoned (as Navalny was in 2020), sent away for life through a show trial (as Navalny was in 2021), to die in a hard-labor camp (as Navalny did in 2024), for speaking truth to power.
Trump’s a former (and perhaps future) elected U.S. president, who’s shown contempt for the law for much of his adult life, living in a mansion and holding large political rallies (where he freely spews a litany of lies), while being lawfully tried though the U.S. legal system for actual crimes and civil complaints. He has the opportunity to appeal every ruling against him, including all the way to the Supreme Court (where his appeals would be considered by three justices of whom he himself appointed).
Do I think some of the prosecutions against Trump have been politically motivated, despite being lawful and targeting legitimate criminal activity? Yes, specifically in New York. And such inequity is entirely worthy of criticism.
But Trump ain’t Navalny… and the U.S. legal system isn’t Russian autocracy. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Those arguing otherwise are cheapening the legacy of an incredibly brave and noble man.