Democrats have an opening as Trump rolls over for Putin

International politics has a long history of falling flat with American voters at the ballot box. But the untimely death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has shined an important spotlight on Donald Trump’s cowardice and congressional Republicans’ dereliction of duty when it comes to providing aid to Ukraine.

Trump, who didn’t have the courage to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for Navalny’s death, instead tweeted out a mopey, self-obsessed, and abjectly delusional screed likening Navalny’s treatment in a Russian penal colony to his own here at home. 

“It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction,” Trump complained on Monday about finally facing accountability for a life spent cheating and swindling his fellow citizens.

Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence, complete with brutal stints in solitary confinement. Trump wouldn’t last six hours under such conditions. The day before Navalny died, he cheerfully elicited a few laughs from a judge during a court hearing in a video shared by Russia’s independent SOTA news service.  

As Trump sought to co-opt Navalny’s bravery while giving Putin a pass, President Joe Biden pinned the opposition leader’s fate squarely on the Kremlin.

“Russian authorities are going to tell their own story,” Biden said of Navalny’s death, with less than a month to go before Russia’s elections. “But make no mistake—make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin is responsible.

Trump’s obsequiousness to Putin isn’t new, but the political climate surrounding it is. House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is currently under pressure to take a vote on a package that would provide critically needed aid to Ukraine (as well as Israel and Taiwan) as the country’s efforts to repel Putin’s invasion falter due to waning resources.  

It’s worth remembering here that, despite Trump’s bromance with Putin, the vast majority of Americans have no love for Russia. In fact, last year, Gallup found Russia’s favorability rating among Americans was at an all-time low of 9%, as former Obama White House aide Dan Pfeiffer noted in his “Message Box” Substack. 

Newly released polling from Pew Research Center also found that 74% of Americans view the war in Ukraine as important to U.S. national interests, including 43% who describe it as “very” important. 

The combination of Russia’s abysmal favorability rating, Americans’ understanding that the fate of Ukraine has implications here at home, and Putin’s likely role in Navalny’s death—his biggest political threat at home—leave Trump and Republicans more vulnerable than ever to attack on the issue. 

If Americans want muscular leadership, Trump and his subservient Republicans are shrinking from the political moment. Biden pointed this out in extemporaneous remarks Monday after he was asked if House Republicans had “Navalny’s blood on [their] hands.”

Biden stopped short of agreeing with that language, but he added they were “making a big mistake” by not responding.

“Look, the way they’re walking away from the threat of Russia, the way they’re walking away from NATO, the way they’re walking away from meeting our obligations, it’s just shocking,” Biden told a gaggle of reporters on the South Lawn. “I mean, they’re wild. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Biden and Democrats should keep rallying around Navalny’s death, Putin’s thuggery, and Trump’s cowardice. For House Republicans, failure to act on the Senate-passed aid package will likely play terribly in the 17 Biden-won districts they need to hold in November to keep control of the House. 

The issue also cuts against Trump’s supposed persona as a strongman on the world stage. Trump is once again proving he’s a coward—too afraid to stand up to Putin even as he fantasizes about embodying the heroism Navalny demonstrated in the face of Putin’s ruthless oppression. 

And on Tuesday, the Biden administration said it plans to announce a new sanctions package against Russia on Friday over Navalny’s death. 

Biden is taking charge, using the tools at his disposal to hold Putin to account, while Trump is whining on the national stage and promising to give Putin free rein “to do whatever the hell they want” to our NATO allies.

Why? Because Trump doesn’t have what it takes to stand up to a bully. He would rather bow to them.

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