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MAG(A)yar Hero

Trump reaching out to his authoritarian soulmate today.

I’m not sure it means much to anyone but Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon but that’s ok. Trump needs to keep their types on board too.

The Washington Post reports on the endorsement and the election:

Former president Donald Trump made an unusual endorsement in a foreign election on Monday, offering his “Complete support” for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a right-wing populist leader accused of undermining the country’s democracy and moving toward autocracy during more than a decade in power.

Six opposition parties have coalesced around Hungarian opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay in a bid to oust Orban, who has championed “illiberal democracy” and become a pariah among European Union members, in parliamentary elections planned for the spring.

During the past decade, Fidesz, Orban’s political party, has introduced a new constitution that weakened judicial independence and human rights protections. Orban has also curbed the rights of journalists and expanded government control of the media.

In 2019, the Washington-based think tank Freedom House downgraded the status of Hungary’s democracy from “free” to “partly free” — a categorization shared by countries like Pakistan, Singapore, Ukraine and Zimbabwe.

I think we’re right on their heels.

Most MAGA voters have never heard of Orban. (I’m sure Trump has a limited understanding of what he’s about as well and I’d be curious to know which of his advisers told him he should do this.) But the “intellectual” extremists of the American right wing, from Carlson to the CPAC organizers to Federalist society are watching Orban very carefully. He has turned Hungary into a modern neo-fascist country without ever firing a shot. This election may be their last chance to turn it around.

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