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Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate has become a major attraction for the world’s illiberal bigots. From Hitler-praising rapper Ye to white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the former president has shown no qualms about bringing bigots into his abode.
He’s set to do so again this week, with Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán scheduled for a visit. And, frankly, I’m surprised that their little playdate isn’t raising more eyebrows.
In Orbán, Trump will be meeting with a leader who has proclaimed that Hungarians “are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race.” Echoing Trump’s immigration rhetoric, including that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of the U.S., Orbán has said that countries where races are mixed are “no longer nations.”
And I think the meeting is worrisome for another reason, too.
From Hitler-praising rapper Ye to white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the former president has shown no qualms about bringing bigots into his abode.
The Supreme Court’s decision to take up Trump’s immunity claim, which could imperil the chances of his federal election interference trial beginning before November, arguably gave Trump a potential pathway to impose on the U.S. the very kind of anti-democratic rule that Orbán has instituted in Hungary.
It’s a point that Joy made on Thursday’s episode of “The ReidOut.”
“What the Supreme Court is doing is incentivizing Trump to become like the strongmen he has long admired and remain president for life, the idea being that he is untouchable as long as he is the president,” she said.
Joy wondered aloud whether Trump will be asking Orbán for tips at Mar-a-Lago. After all, the Hungarian leader, who has been in power since 2010, has entrenched his rule in ways that seem eerily similar to tactics deployed here by Republicans.
The Washington Post broke down the evidence after Orbán’s Fidesz party won 53% of the vote in Hungary’s parliamentary election two years ago — but 83% of the districts. The Post reported:
Hungary’s electoral playing field is heavily tilted against the opposition. In 2010, Orban amended the Constitution to cut the size of the parliament in about half, after which he gerrymandered the entire country. The districts, drawn with no input from the opposition, spread Fidesz voters across many small districts in rural areas while concentrating opposition voters in much larger districts in the cities, thus giving them fewer chances to win.
There’s no telling what, precisely, Trump and Orbán will speak about. Trump, after all, is known to ramble, so I reckon the convo could broach anything from toilets to totalitarianism.
And I’d bet heavily on the latter. Trump and the conservative movement have painted Orbán as the type of leader they want presiding over America. And as Joy suggested, the Supreme Court may have just given Trump a way to make those wishes a reality.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meeting with Fuentes and Ye garnered plenty of blowback. At minimum, his meeting with Orbán deserves an equal response.