Olivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USAOlivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USA
One bright spot for President Joe Biden as he defended his decision to remain in the presidential race at his first news conference following the debate was foreign policy, an area Biden proved skillful and clear-eyed. But while Biden spoke at the NATO summit on Thursday, Donald Trump was reportedly in Mar-a-Lago rubbing elbows with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The split-screen scenarios underscored, once again, the immense gulf between the two presidential candidates in a pivotal election year for US democracy.
Trump appeared to confirm the meeting, posting on Truth Social, “Thank you Viktor.” The message followed a series of posts mocking Biden for his “big boy” news conference.
This was not Orbán’s first visit to Mar-a-Lago. Earlier this year, Trump invited the self-proclaimed “illiberal” prime minister to his private club, saying there’s no leader “better, stronger, or smarter” than Orbán.
An anti-democracy icon on the far-right, Orbán has ruled Hungary for over a decade with a distinctly authoritarian platform. As my colleague David Corn reported, here are a few of the things Orbán has done as prime minister:
- Attacked the independence of the country’s courts
- Ushered in state control of the media
- Banned gender studies in universities and same-sex unions
- Promoted anti-Semitic and racist ideologies, including the “Great Replacement Theory”
- Said that he wanted to turn Hungary into an “illiberal” state, using Russia and Turkey as his blueprints
In 2022, Orbán was also a keynote speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he gave a speech that amounted to a step-by-step tutorial on how to undermine a country’s democracy.
Given Trump’s long history of praising other autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, his latest meeting with Orbán only further solidifies what we’ve already known: If he secures the presidency in 2024, Trump and his allies are all in on establishing similar policies in the United States.
