On Friday morning, the world learned of the death of Alexei Navalny, and President Joe Biden was quick to condemn the developments and blame Vladimir Putin for killing the Russian opposition leader. The Democrat added this week that the United States is considering “additional sanctions” on Russia as a result.
The Republican who hopes to replace Biden has adopted a very different approach.
On Friday, as much of the political world wondered how Donald Trump would respond to Navalny’s death, the former president ignored the developments. On Saturday, he again said nothing. The same was true on Sunday. All the while, the Republican used his social media platform to comment on a great many subjects, and held a rally in which he peddled a variety of thoughts, but he wouldn’t bring himself to comment on Navalny.
On Monday morning, Trump finally published an item online remarking on the Russian opposition leader’s “sudden death.” The former president’s missive added that the United States is filled with “crooked” politicians, a corrupt judicial system, and “rigged” elections. The Republican concluded that the United States is a “failing nation” and a “nation in decline.”
Trump wrote nothing about Navalny’s life or cause. He wrote nothing about Putin or the authoritarian government responsible for Navalny’s life. Instead, the presumptive GOP nominee took the opportunity to briefly reference Navalny before listing some of the things he doesn’t like about the United States.
Indeed, Trump’s condemnation of his own country wasn’t much different from what one might expect from a foreign opponent of the United States, disparaging American institutions from afar.
Soon after, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi sat down with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki and said Trump’s statement was “beneath the dignity of a human being.” The California Democrat added, “It is so horrible you think, ‘No, somebody must have made this up. Not even Donald Trump could go this far.’ … This statement should disqualify him from running for anything, much less President of the United States.”
But as part of the same comments, Pelosi also raised a related question:
“You wonder, what does Putin have on Donald Trump that he always has to be beholden to him, his buddy in vileness? … I don’t know what [Putin] has on [Trump], but I think it’s probably financial.”
Oddly enough, the Democratic congresswoman isn’t the only one who’s pondered the question. Former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who also served as a Republican senator before joining Trump’s team, had similar concerns. Bob Woodward wrote in his 2020 book, “Rage,” that Coats spent much of his tenure wondering what Putin had on Trump — a concern that intensified over time. “How else to explain the president’s behavior? Coats could see no other explanation,” Woodward wrote. In other words, Trump’s handpicked director of National Intelligence, during his tenure on the Republican president’s national security team, reportedly suspected that Trump had been compromised by Russia — and the longer Coats served alongside the GOP president, the more he feared his suspicions were true. I wonder what Coats is thinking now after Trump used the occasion of Navalny’s death to criticize the United States.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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