Just last week, Italian investigative reporters revealed that the Kremlin is providing $3 million to support the European election campaign of Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s far right party. Similarly, right before the 2018 U.S. midterms, federal prosecutors exposed a multi-million dollar Russian digital campaign to influence the election.

Two critical elections, two cases of Russia seeking to influence the outcome.

The sad reality of our politics is that foreign interference in the 2020 election cycle is almost guaranteed. America’s non-response to Russia’s political assault has shown Russia and other adversaries that with Donald Trump at the helm, there is no cost to messing in America’s democratic process. To make matters worse, the person in charge of protecting America actually has a vested interest in ignoring the problem. Most recently, the Trump administration gutted key government programs designed to protect elections, essentially laying out the welcome mat for Russia to intervene in 2020.