Does the Trump-led wing of the Republican Party even like the United States?
On Monday, following the death in Russia of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained at the time, former President Donald Trump — still the front-runner for this year’s presidential nomination from the GOP — used the figure’s fate to attack the United States. Trump did not mention Russian leader Vladimir Putin, under whose leadership Navalny was placed into the conditions leading up to his death.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” Trump claimed on Truth Social. “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.”
As recounted by figures actually involved in the federal government’s efforts at border security, the United States’ borders are not “open.” There remains no evidence of election-rigging of the sort Trump still claims, meaning fraud that produced Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. And courtroom outcomes in his own cases that Trump deems unfair do not somehow spell the destruction of the United States. There’s no direct connection. At present, Trump is a private citizen.
Trump and those in his political corner consistently build their campaign messages on this approach of relentlessly putting down the United States. Beyond mere policy disagreements, Trump extrapolates his frustrations to the most extensive level possible and casts himself essentially as the savior. Whether complaining about New York City, Washington, D.C., Georgia’s Fulton County, or one of the locations where his team and allies falsely allege election fraud, the trend is consistent. Trump ignores positive developments like significant declines in the rate of inflation as measured by the federal government and continually low unemployment. And he sticks by his recent threats to favor Russia in a potential stand-off with NATO member countries.
