Republicans are making it clear that they see Hungary as their model for a future Donald Trump-controlled America. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and leaders of the Republican Party have been meeting and working together since Trump’s first four years in the White House. Their relationship and Orban’s influence have expanded since.
After Orban visited Trump at his Florida home earlier this month, he proceeded to Washington, D.C., to meet with leadership of the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank. Its leadership team has also been working with Orban as it plans for a potential return to the White House.
Despite Orban’s anti-democratic shift in Hungary, including eliminating basic democratic freedoms, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, called Hungary “not just a model for conservative statecraft” in America, “but the model.”
Last year, as the keynote speaker for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Orban said Hungary is “the place where we didn’t just talk about defeating the progressives and liberals and causing a conservative Christian political turn, but we did it.” Of course, Orban did not say how he “did it.”
He has dismantled democracy in Hungary, silenced the free press and jailed dissenters. Democracy and freedom are dead in Hungary, yet Republicans see it as a model for the future of America.
Trump doesn’t want to make America great; he wants to remake America in the image of Hungary, and he has been consulting with Orban on how to get there. It starts with questioning the integrity of elections and restricting voting opportunities which Republicans have been working on for years.
As outlined by historian Heather Richardson Cox in her podcast, “In Hungary, Orban has undermined democracy, gutting the civil service and filling it with loyalists; attacking immigrants, women, and the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals; taking over businesses for friends and family, and moving the country away from the rules-based international order supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).”
Trump has more than hinted at many of these goals himself.
Allowing Vladimir Putin to take over Ukraine is part of their plan. Orban is friendly with Putin and visits him frequently. This is their first step in weakening NATO, also part of their plan.
Trump has called for the jailing of members of Congress who investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. He also announced plans to pardon and release those convicted of attacking the police and other crimes related to the insurrection and efforts to overthrow the 2020 presidential election violently.
When Trump tells us he plans to jail his opponents and pardon those who use violence to force his agenda on us, we should believe him. As stated by Roberts, Trump got off to a slow start in his first administration. Still, he says, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups will ensure Trump does not make that mistake during a second administration. Americans should consider this a warning.
Trump, Orban and Putin have a lot in common. None of them care about the citizens they profess to represent. It is all about their personal needs, especially their need to remain in power. They are not interested in improving the quality of life for their citizens or securing their freedoms. Their policy plans are all about securing their power and holding on to that power. Trump looks at Orban and Putin as models for a future presidency.
U.S. Ambassador David Pressman recently noted the 25th anniversary of Hungary’s joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with a speech warning Orban that his continued support of Putin and his suppression of democratic rights in Hungary jeopardized his relationship with the U.S. and NATO. The ambassador noted that Orban has made six trips to Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine, with another visit planned for the end of March.
Pressman condemned Orban’s “systematic takeover of independent media,” the “favorable treatment for companies owned by party leaders or their families, in-laws, or old friends, and laws prohibiting “public discourse.”
There is no doubt that Trump has the same plans for America given the chance in November.
Pressman noted Orban’s anti-American comments in recent months, including calling “the United States a corpse whose nails continue to grow” and other “dangerously unhinged anti-American messaging.” For all of his talk about making America great, Trump has not condemned Orban for his anti-American rhetoric. Rather, he has praised Orban despite his anti-American rhetoric and seeks to imitate him.
We should believe Trump when he says at a campaign rally that former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, should be “executed” for his statements respecting the non-partisan role of the military over his loyalty to Trump’s political aims.
We should believe Trump when he calls for the “termination” of parts of the Constitution he disagrees with. Trump’s efforts to overturn the last presidential election so he could remain in power tell us all we need to know about his respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.
Trump imitates Orban when he calls his critics “vermin” and says migrants are not real people who “are poisoning the blood of our country.” Orban uses the same language when talking about minority communities, members of the LBGQT community and women fighting for equal rights in Hungary. And Trump imitates Putin when he says he wants to lock up political opponents as Putin does in Russia regularly.
Our next presidential election will decide America’s path forward and the fate of our democracy. Will we embrace Trump’s authoritarian rule or will we defend democracy, the rule of law, and our Constitution? This is our choice in November and, hopefully, not our last.
Tom Zirpoli is the Laurence J. Adams Distinguished Chair in Special Education Emeritus at McDaniel College. He writes from Westminster. His column appears on Wednesdays. Email him at tzirpoli@mcdaniel.edu.
