MAGA desperate for new far-right despot to idolize

For many years, far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Fidesz party seemed entrenched in Hungary. Orbán didn't come to power via a military coup d'état like Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1973 but rather, was voted into office. Orbán, however, did everything he could to undermine Hungary's system of checks and balances, making it very difficult to replace him as prime minister.

But on Sunday, April 12, Orbán was voted out of office after 16 years in Hungary's parliamentary elections, and it wasn't even close. Center-right Prime Minister-elect Péter Magyar, running with the Tisza party, won by roughly 19 percent. U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were bitterly disappointed, having given Orbán their enthusiastic support.

Journalist Steven Greenhut, in an article published by the libertarian Reason on April 24, examines the implications that Orbán's double-digit defeat has for the MAGA movement in the United States. MAGA, according to Greenhut, now finds itself looking for another foreign despot to idolize.

"Legions of conservatives — including the sitting vice president — have flocked to Hungary to champion the wonders of Viktor Orbán's self-described 'illiberal" government," Greenhut explains. "If you're not up on political lingo, the term 'illiberal' does not refer to modern liberalism, but to the classical liberalism of our founders. Right-wing post-liberalism is about replacing limited government with something like elected autocracy…. Hungarian voters handily rebuked him and his Vladimir Putin-friendly Fidesz party…. despite President Donald Trump's fawning support."

Greenhut continues, "It's been splendid watching the weeping and gnashing of teeth from American MAGA supporters. In an admirable and hard-hitting column in Fox News, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) noted that 'Hungarian politics has persisted as an object of intense fascination in certain corners of the American right.' He found this affinity 'endlessly puzzling,' as 'America's self-proclaimed national conservatives spoke of Orbán's Hungary as an oasis of traditionalism amid the wasteland of an ailing, liberal and decadent postmodern Europe.'"

Greenhut notes that Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts "slammed" McConnell's column in an April 13 post on X, writing, "7-term Republican Senator celebrates Hungary becoming a vassal state of the EU" — a post that, Greenhut laments, shows how "deformed" parts of the American right have become.

Juho Romakkaniemi, CEO of the Finland Chamber of Commerce, called Roberts out on X, posting, "Excuse me, sir. Unfortunately you don’t seem to understand what you are talking about. Hungary was a corrupt slave state of Russia. Now it took its sovereignity back. Being a Member of the EU is not ’being a vassal’, but being a part of something bigger - for not to be bullied."

Greenhut observes, "In Hungary, the country sank on the Freedom Index, as the Cato Institute explained. Its attacks on private property and exertion of state control over industry have caused its economic fortunes to fall behind its neighbors…. I would never have believed that modern conservatives would behave like 1980s leftists. Instead of looking for inspiration from illiberal foreign or domestic leaders, they need to rediscover the classical liberal values that made our nation so free and prosperous."