How 'authoritarian' Viktor Orbán won over a top conservative think tank

15 March 2024

For decades, the Heritage Foundation was closely identified with traditional Ronald Reagan conservatism. Heritage was founded in 1973 during President Richard Nixon's second term (which was cut short by the Watergate scandal when Nixon resigned in August 1974), and its influence on the conservative movement grew considerably during Ronald Reagan's presidency in the 1980s.

Major players in Heritage were highly critical of Patrick Buchanan — arguably the blueprint for Donald Trump's MAGA movement — and his blend of isolationism, protectionism, social conservatism and hyper-nationalism during the 1990s and 2000s. In 1996, Stuart Butler, then Heritage's director of domestic policy studies, scornfully accused Buchanan's economic views of being "far to the left of most of the people in the Democratic Party."

But the MAGA movement has since become a major influence on Heritage, including MAGA's affection for far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

In a biting report published by The New Republic on March 15, journalist/author Casey Michel details the think tank's relationship with the "authoritarian" Orbán.

"How, and why, did the Heritage Foundation become the go-to vehicle for Budapest's budding autocracy to target Americans?" Michel explains. "The answer follows several different tracks."

Michel continues, "On the one hand, Hungary has been shedding lobbying outfits for the past few years, dropping a range of PR shops and Twitter influencers to focus solely on Heritage. On the other hand, internal transformations at Heritage — and a willingness to shred its reputation as a bastion of Reaganite, and even democratic, credentials — led the think tank's leadership directly into Orbán's lap, allowing it to become little more than a mouthpiece for a strongman and a leading proponent for Orbán-style rule in the U.S."

In 2023, Heritage formed an alliance with the Budapest-based Danube Institute, a right-wing Hungarian think tank with close ties to Orbán's government.

"While Heritage grew to prominence in the 1980s as a font of Reaganite policy, in recent years the organization has undergone a monumental shift in terms of both policy and priorities," Michel observes. "Rather than persist in its stolid dedication to conservative values, Heritage has swung in a far more reactionary — and far more authoritarian — direction in recent years. Across the policy landscape, Heritage has become little more than an intellectual breeding ground for Trumpist ideas."

Michel adds, "While much attention has understandably focused on Heritage's so-called 'Project 2025,' which provides a roadmap for Trump to seize as much power as he can, such a shift has extended to foreign policy. This has been seen most especially in Heritage leading the effort to gut funding for Ukraine. But it's also evident in the way Heritage has endeavored to anchor its relations with Orbán, making Budapest once more America's preferred partner in Europe — regardless of the cost."

Casey Michel's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.

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