CPAC 'proud' to host Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán to 'fight against socialism'

Mona Charen and Max Boot are among the Never Trump conservatives who have been vehemently critical of the fact that so many MAGA Republicans are openly embracing far-right Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán. And the MAGA movement’s fondness for Orbán is showing itself once again with the announcement that the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is bringing Orbán to its August event in Texas.

Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union, told the right-wing Daily Caller — which was co-founded by Tucker Carlson in 2010 — “CPAC is proud to host Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The fight against socialism is a global one.”

The August event follows an event that CPAC hosted in Budapest, Hungary in May, when the organization also honored Orbán.

READ MORE: ‘Fear-driven alliance’: Conservative explains why far-right CPAC ‘opportunists’ and ‘paranoids’ are meeting in Hungary

In Hungary, Orbán’s critics have accused him of undermining the country’s system of checks and balances and rigging the country’s political system in his favor. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Hungarian leader’s critics have slammed Carlson and others in the MAGA movement for openly embracing an authoritarian.

Charen, a former Nancy Reagan speechwriter, has compared Carlson and other Orbán apologists to American leftists who were useful idiots for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during the 1960s and 1970s.