Former President Donald Trump compared his recent $350 million fine from a New York court to last week's death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Navalny, a renowned critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was pronounced dead by Russian prison officials last Friday. The Russian opposition leader was serving a 19-year sentence based on extremism-related charges in addition to a 9-year sentence due to fraud and embezzlement charges, per NPR.
During a Tuesday night town hall hosted by Fox News' Laura Ingraham in Greenville, South Carolina, Trump discussed his legal battles and said the United States was turning into a communist country.
“Navalny is a very sad situation ... 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.”
The former president noted he was the leading Republican candidate and even showed an edge against incumbent President Joe Biden in some polls.
"I have eight or nine trials all because of the fact that I’m in politics,” Trump continued. “They indicted me with things that are so ridiculous.”
Ingraham asked Trump about his recent New York fine by Judge Arthur Engoron after he ruled the former president and his organization inflated his net worth and misled lenders. Trump and his organization have also been banned from running business in the state for three years, per the ruling.
“It is a form of Navalny,” Trump said of Engoron's order. “It is a form of communism, of fascism.”
Earlier this week, Trump said Navalny's death had made him "more aware" of corruption in the United States in a Truth Social post.
Trump's post made no mention of Putin, though detailed a series of his concerns saying open borders policies, rigged elections, and "grossly unfair courtroom decisions" were destroying the country.
“It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction,” Trump continued. “Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA."
"WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION!" Trump asserted in his post.
Trump's last remaining Republican challenger Nikki Haley took issue with his response to Navalny's death in a Monday X post.
“Donald Trump could have condemned Vladimir Putin for being a murderous thug. Trump could have praised Navalny’s courage," the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. wrote. "Instead, he stole a page from liberals' playbook, denouncing America and comparing our country to Russia."
