Donald Trump again made a comparison between his own legal troubles and the imprisonment and death of Alexei Navalny, doubling down on comments he made shortly after the Russian dissident died while jailed in a remote arctic prison. "Navalny is a very sad situation and he's very brave, he was a very brave guy," Trump said in response to a question from Laura Ingraham during a Fox News Channel town hall that aired Tuesday night after being recorded earlier in the day in South Carolina. "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." More, plus two other notable topics from the town hall:
- Navalny, continued: "And it's a horrible thing, but it's happening in our country, too," Trump said, suggesting that his criminal indictments are evidence America is "turning into a communist country in many ways." "I got indicted four times ... all because of the fact that I'm in politics. They indicted me on things that are so ridiculous," he said. He also mentioned his recent loss in a civil fraud trial. "It is a form of Navalny," he said. "It is a form of communism, of fascism." He did not mention Russian President Vladimir Putin at all.