Not only praising putin and vilifying the USA, but making millions doing so, and maga celebrates the traitor...
If Trump wins yes this could be American policy. For people like Trump and Orban the fall of a democracy is not just no big deal but something they welcome.
Jessie Benton, who worked for the pro-Trump super PAC and was a longtime aide to former GOP Rep. Ron Paul, was convicted by a federal jury in November on several charges, including conspiring to solicit an illegal foreign campaign contribution. Both the Trump campaign and Trump himself were not aware of the scheme involving Russian money, the Justice Department has said. According to evidence presented at trial, Benton helped a Russian national secure a ticket to a Republican National Committee event in 2016, where he would have the opportunity to meet and take a picture with Trump. The Russian national paid Benton $100,000 to get the ticket, prosecutors said. Benton created a fake invoice suggesting he had received the money for consulting services, donated $25,000 of that money under his own name to the RNC to get a ticket to the event and pocketed the remaining $75,000. A veteran GOP operative, Benton has now been convicted of crimes related to the 2016 and 2012 elections. He was previously convicted of falsifying federal records as part of a plot to buy an endorsement from an Iowa state senator, who flipped her support to Paul during the 2012 Republican primary. Trump pardoned Benton for those crimes in late 2020, wiping those convictions off the books.
These are the types Trump pardons. Guys just like him. Shady, crooked white collar criminals. He dangles that pardon carrot in hopes they will aid him in doing those same type crimes again. You see the pattern over and over again with Trump. He not only associates with criminals, he hires them, campaigns with them, fundraises with them, goes into business with them, pardons them, and encourages them to commit crimes again. King of hush money, bribes, payoffs, and doing whatever it takes to win, make money, or keep his sorry crooked butt out of prison.
