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Donald Trump received a predictably warm welcome at the Florida Republican Party’s Freedom Summit on Saturday, though the Meidas Touch Network flagged the one part of the former president’s remarks that stood out for me.
For at least the third time in a couple weeks, MAGA leader Donald Trump praised Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban, the leader of country with 20% inflation that is in the midst of massive economic unrest, in a rambling speech on Saturday. The comment came as once again Trump erroneously claimed that Hungary borders Russia, which Trump has repeatedly tried to use to suggest Orban is some kind of power broker in Eastern Europe.
Reflecting on international leaders he admires, the Republican told attendees, “One of the strongest of all is Viktor Orbán of, you know that, of Hungary. He has the privilege of fronting on Ukraine and Russia.”
For now, let’s put aside the question of why Trump keeps suggesting that Hungary borders Russia, when it obviously does not. Of greater interest is why the former president keeps celebrating the Hungarian prime minister.
In fact, to the degree that Trump has a standard 2024 stump speech, it now includes gushing praise for Orbán. On the Republican’s social media platform, he also routinely publishes items celebrating the Hungarian leader. “Viktor Orbán is a great leader and man,” Trump wrote in September.
What’s more, this isn’t altogether new. The former president last year endorsed Orbán’s bid for another term, touting the prime minister as a “strong leader” who’s “tough.” He used similar language on Saturday, pointing to the Hungarian as “one of the strongest of all” international leaders.
In case anyone needs a refresher, The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie explained a while back that Orbán’s Hungary “is corrupt, repressive and authoritarian, a place where democracy is little more than window dressing.”
My MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem added:
Orbán’s nativist record is well-known on the right. ... His ethno-nationalist goal of keeping “Hungary for the Hungarians” is laden with anti-Semitic theories that Jewish financiers are destroying the country. ... Orbán’s appeal to the right extends beyond his ultra-nativism. He is also a social traditionalist who has banned gender studies at universities and shot down the legal recognition of trans people.
Aleem’s report added that the Hungarian strongman has taken a series of steps in recent years to undermine democratic institutions, “through measures like consolidation of hundreds of media outlets under the control of political allies, gaming elections and using emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic to dramatically expand executive power.”
Vox published a related report in 2018 on “how democracy died in Hungary.” It noted a vote from the European Parliament, which labelled Orbán’s government a “systemic threat to the rule of law.”
And therein lies the problem with Trump’s admiration. The Republican doesn’t appear to like Orbán despite the Hungarian’s authoritarianism; Trump seems to admire the prime minister because of his authoritarianism. The veneration is rooted entirely in the former president’s impression of Orbán as someone who’s “strong” and “tough.”
It’s the same vision that leads Trump to offer related praise for China’s Xi Jinping — “He runs 1.4 billion people with an iron fist,” the Republican said in July, “Smart, brilliant, everything perfect” — Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
While we’re at it, let’s also not forget that as recently as 2016, Trump also publicly touted Saddam Hussein’s approach to governing in Iraq. It wasn’t the first time the Republican offered tacit praise for the Iraqi dictator.
Yes, there are all kinds of guardrails in the United States that would prevent Trump from trying to impose Orbán-inspired governing here. But it’s also true that the former president reportedly intends to “populate a new administration with a more aggressive breed” of right-wing lawyers who would help target those guardrails.