Donald Trump has never hidden his fascination with Putin. Well, maybe he doesn't look like a leader in his own image anymore after the recent rebellion of the Wagner Group and his sudden panic attack when he heard that the tanks were heading for Moscow.
If he were Russian, and given the fate of Aleksei Navalni, the main opponent of the Kremlin regime, sentenced yesterday to another 19 years in prison for his "extremism", Trump would be rotting in a high-security hell in Siberia.
His constant accusations of corruption leveled without evidence against the President of the United States, Joe Biden, or his gratuitous complaints of being the victim of "political persecution", neither of which would be tolerated by his friend Putin, on on which there are more than suspicions for a few poisonings in even minor matters.
Does anyone think that Trump would return to his Bedminster (New Jersey) mansion, broadcast live, after being accused in court of conspiring to overturn the result of the 2020 election? Does anyone think that an autocrat would let a rival insist at the foot of the stairs of the plane that he is the victim of a plot hatched by the person who is at the head of the Government? Not even the most insane and irrational artificial intelligence could think of anything like that. Play the game.
Fortunately for Trump, the United States is not yet Russia. The "yet" is because the former president vows to take revenge on all those who do not applaud him if he returns to the White House. You only had to look at the angry face he had on Thursday after regaining his freedom. Local reporters say he was angry. Not only because of the seriousness of the alleged acts, but because of the treatment given to him by the judge, who addressed him as "Mr. Trump" and not with the reverential "Mr. President". They say that it was fatal for him to be reduced to a normal citizen, like one more of his faithful.
Unlike the other two court appearances – in New York for the alleged bribery to have silenced a porn actress and in Miami for the alleged theft of State secrets–, this time he did not mount a triumphant appearance in the return to his barracks He limited himself to a scant minute of statement to the press, without taking questions, in which he insisted on accusing his successor without evidence of everything that is happening to him, as if Biden had incited the fascist masses to storm the Capitol on the 6 January 2021.
This Friday, after the third and most serious imputation, he persevered to place himself in the center of the target. He reiterated that he is the victim of an operation to eradicate the leader in the Republican field in the run-up to 2024. But he added an unprecedented element. He demanded that the Supreme Court put an end to his judicial nightmare in the purest Putinesque style: suddenly.
It has a sense of ownership. The High Court is dominated by conservative magistrates (six out of nine), of which three were appointed by him. He seems to think that they owe him something, even though the Supreme Court disqualified all the cases about the lie of electoral theft in 2020 that have led to this last accusation, of a never-before-seen magnitude.
Although he then assured that the magistrates lacked courage, a legal argument without parion, he has resorted to it again. "This is electoral interference and the Supreme Court must intercede", he demanded from his social network.
"I'm the leader in the polls, even against dishonest Joe, but that's not a level playing field," he said.
"My political rival attacks me with an avalanche of weak accusations and this requires large amounts of my time and my money", he clarified. "The resources that would have gone to advertisements and rallies, I will spend them fighting these radical left-wing pricks in numerous courts," he added.
So Trump publicly acknowledged that he cheats his campaign donors. He accepts that he violates the maxim of beggars, that "it is sad to beg, but sadder is to steal". Trump asks for money to finance his political career and then diverts those funds to pay the bills of his lawyers, who are loyal, but not peachy.
In fact, according to official data, the former president has the best fundraising machinery. His political action committee brought in more than $105 million. This week he had just four million in his accounts after paying legal fees. His campaign finances are inversely proportional to his poll results and he is in danger of losing steam if he is forced to lower his campaign spending.
But the machinery has benefited from the imputations. This week, as the third indictment was announced, Eric Trump, one of his sons, began sending e-mails asking for cash, please.
In another post, his father continued to grease the engine. "I only need one more imputation to secure my election," he wrote. He knows that Georgia's attorney general is ready to act on her attempt to overturn the election result in that state. He asked that 11,780 votes be taken from where they were. The Putin doctrine.
