Putin knows that one of the quickest ways to destroy the US is if the rest of western civilization abandons it. Russia saw firsthand how quickly nearly the entire world joined in to sanction and abandon them when they invaded Ukraine with that bullshit story. The Panama shit is an even worse excuse, almost guaranteed to turn the western world fully against the US.

However, it’s also physically separated enough from the US that Americans at home that don’t pay attention won’t be directly affected to turn against it with retaliation, the Republican base is racist and narcissistic enough to back it seriously, and with a large enough power imbalance so unlike Ukraine there’s no chance of a prolonged conflict.

The infrastructure isn’t in place yet for them to just do whatever they want and arrest every protester like Russia does, so they do have to still take that into account, Panama is remote and unknown to a large portion of the population sadly. But the building of Panama Canal is something that many learned about in school as a pivotal historical infrastructure project. Something still in use today and referenced in the news even though they may not know where it is. For the America is Best narcissist, taking back what “we” built is an admirable goal.

Like, I’ve been saying it since he was accused, he could very well get off Scott free.

Given the fact that law enforcement has provided evidence and interviews for a bullshit pseudo-documentary without even providing it to the defense, it certainly brings up the possibility that they might think that evidence won’t be admissible in court. So they’re trying to taint the public, and thus the jury pool, with whatever story they want.