Donald Trump invited Hungarian authoritarian Viktor Orbán to visit Mar-a-Lago this past Friday. Trump’s campaign put out images of the event, saying that Orbán and Trump talked about “a wide range of issues,” including border security.
However, it appears the security of most importance to both Trump and Orbán concerns the border that belongs to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. As the BBC reported on Monday, Orbán explained Trump’s plan to end Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
“He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war,” said Orbán. “That is why the war will end.” In other words, Orbán and Trump are promising to starve Ukraine of any ability to defend itself, ensuring that a democratic nation of nearly 37 million (as of 2023) people falls to an authoritarian dictatorship.
“It is obvious that Ukraine cannot stand on its own feet,” Orbán said on Hungary’s M1 TV. “If the Americans don’t give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, then the war is over. And if the Americans don’t give money, the Europeans alone are unable to finance this war. And then the war is over.” For Orbán, Putin, and Trump, this is a good thing.
Trump has long bragged that he could end the Russian invasion within 24 hours. Trump said as much to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last May, then repeated the promise when speaking at a town hall last June.
Details of that plan have always been sketchy, but there has long been a suspicion that what Trump meant by “end the war” was forcing Ukraine to surrender. Now this has been confirmed by Orbán.
As The Washington Post reported, Trump bragged that Orbán is a “non-controversial” leader. Not because he has the respect and support of all parts of the Hungarian population, but because he has aggressively shattered Hungary’s democratic system and replaced it with one where he’s the unchallenged ruler.
“He’s a non-controversial figure because he says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it,” said Trump.
As Vox reported in 2018, Orbán achieved that status in a way that should be controversial everywhere.
Over the course of his eight years in power, Prime Minister Orbán has chipped away at the foundations of Hungarian democracy. It has been replaced with an authoritarian regime that wields a cynical interpretation of the law as a weapon; the country is governed by rules … that can seem reasonable on their face but actually serve to undermine essential democratic freedoms.
However, a new report from CNN details how Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly explained Trump’s fondness for dictators and their unchecked power.
“He thought Putin was an OK guy and Kim was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” Kelly told CNN reporter Jim Sciutto. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’”
If only people didn’t try to uphold human rights, individual liberty, and free will, there wouldn’t be any conflict. Because then the dictators would have already won.
Kelly also told Sciutto that Trump called Orbán “fantastic” and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping “brilliant.” But according to Kelly, it wasn’t just present-day dictators who drew Trump’s admiration.
In a discussion about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Trump reportedly tried to defend the German dictator’s actions to Kelly.
“He said, ‘Well, but Hitler did some good things.’ I said, ‘Well, what?’ And he said, ‘Well, [Hitler] rebuilt the economy.’”
In a Republican Party where the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory has gone mainstream, facing white Christian nationalist movement that has increasing power within the party, these ideas are extraordinarily dangerous.
Of course, Trump isn’t promising his rally crowds that he will execute millions of people. Yet. So far, Trump’s focused on mass deportations—human rights and international law be damned—to stop immigrants from “poisoning the blood” of the nation.
Trump’s Hitler praise and willingness to hand over a democratic nation to his authoritarian pal isn’t the first step along a path. America is already far down this road.
Trump wants absolute power. His friends have a plan to use that absolute power. They have a model to follow. And if the Ukrainian people are forced into a diaspora while Putin makes a tour of Kyiv, Orbán and Trump will be happy to ride along in the parade.
Campaign Action
