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World leaders laugh off Trump’s 'funny' move to make MAGA global

On Monday, it was reported that world leaders are once again laughing off President Donald Trump’s hair-brained schemes. This time, it involves the latest chapter in MAGA’s attempt to take its movement global.

According to Politico, Monday morning saw Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk scoffing at a report that the Trump administration is considering former Hungarian Prime Minister and MAGA ally Viktor Orbán as a candidate for U.N. secretary-general. Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal had reported that the administration is pressing Orbán to make a bid for the position, arguing that he could be a compromise candidate acceptable to Washington, Moscow, and Beijing. But when Tusk – one of Europe’s most high-profile leaders, having recently served as President of the European Council – was asked about the matter, his smiling response suggested much about the viability of Orbán’s candidacy. “Just a moment ago, he was a candidate for president of the European Commission,” noted Tusk, referring to a recent false claim that the ousted Hungarian strongman could become Commission president. “This seems to me just as funny as that first rumor.”

This incident sits at the intersection of two trends: Trump and his allies’ failed endeavor to make MAGA a global movement, and world leaders' growing unwillingness to placate the hostile U.S. president. For years, Orbán’s semi-autocratic rule of Hungary was propped up as a model for MAGA, with top figures from the movement visiting the country to champion his leadership, which was characterized by its anti-immigrant, anti-democratic qualities, while he enjoyed headline appearances at Republican events like CPAC. But when he was voted out in April, it was considered a major blow to MAGA adherents who previously viewed his rule as evidence that global far-right rule was somehow fated. At the time, there were reports that Trump was “crashing out” over the loss. According to Ivan Krastev, chair of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria, Orbán’s defeat had “an incredible psychological impact” on the far-right. And as Orbán biographer Pal Daniel Renyi put it, the election was proof to Orbán, Trump, and their followers that “nothing lasts forever.”

Tusk’s response to Orbán’s UN candidacy also revealed European leaders’ growing unwillingness to even pretend to take Trump seriously. Earlier this year, he found that “all doors have shut” to him after he attempted to bully Europe into entering his war against Iran. His offensive behavior managed to insult even far-right allies like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who publicly broke with him after his “sexist insult” earlier this year. Trump’s floundering relationship with world leaders was put on full display during the G7 summit in June after photographs emerged of him standing glaring and alone while other heads of state shook hands and chatted amicably with one another.

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GOP insider shocked by MAGA’s 'sick jokes': 'This can’t be real'

On Wednesday, a longtime conservative political commentator warned that while recent moves by President Donald Trump and his allies may seem like “sick jokes,” their efforts have dangerous implications. According to Charlie Sykes – who broke with the Republican Party after it embraced Trump – MAGA is making the United States into a “full-fledged Sanctuary State for a variety of assorted crooks and failed wanna-be strongmen.”

“Part of the difficulty of navigating our fraught era is the constant, chronic sense that our timeline reads like a parody of a satire of stupidity,” writes Sykes. “Other generations faced the challenge of separating the wheat from the chaff; the goats from the sheep. We have to distinguish the surreal from the moronic from the outright fake. ‘Surely this can’t be real,' will be chiseled on the tombstones of our sanity.” As an example of this, Sykes points to recent reports that the Trump administration is pushing for former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – known for his anti-democratic leadership – to become Secretary-General of the United Nations. While this may at first seem like some “sick joke,” Sykes warns that it’s a serious threat. As the Wall Street Journal explained, “Why not Mr. Orban? There are plenty of reasons, such as that he would act as an apologist for Vladimir Putin and other dictators.” But as one U.S. official argued, Orban is “the dream MAGA-conservative candidate.”

And as Sykes notes, this news was followed by revelations that in Brazil, “defeated Trump-crony Flavio Bolsonaro and his family fled the country shortly after he conceded defeat in the election and sought asylum in the tender arms of the Donald.” Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, had previously fled to the US after losing a presidential election to Lula. On Monday, the Trump administration declared that it would grant visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family. “Trump’s America,” asserts Sykes, “has become a full-fledged Sanctuary State for a variety of assorted crooks and failed wanna-be strongmen.”

And while the president continues to strengthen ties with his “Axis of Thuggery,” Sykes continues, “he lashed out at his new enemy… (checks notes several times)…. Norway, which he labeled a s——house country’ because it failed to award him the Nobel Peace Prize.” Earlier in the week, Trump had argued that Norwegian immigrants shouldn’t be allowed ‘because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize... So I don’t want anybody from Norway.” The president went on to offer his unvarnished opinion of the longtime U.S. ally, declaring, “Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a s——house country, actually.” At the same time, he’s attacking Somalian immigrants by using outright racism and lies, saying at a recent rally, “Somalia – you know 98 percent of the people that we have here now in Somalia don’t work. They don’t really have to work because they steal so much. They all have a Mercedes-Benz. Can you believe? Low IQ and they live better than you do.”

And that, notes Sykes, was all just a taste of this week’s “bizarrity.” At rallies, Trump keeps praising the bodies of Republican candidates, had rapper Nicki Minaj stand up to show off her posterior, and has made “X-rated” hand gestures. On top of all that, a new report revealed the disturbingly racist and sexist background of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “faith advisor” at the Pentagon, and that Hegseth has held Christian worship services at the Pentagon featuring “a pastor who has said he supports the repeal of women’s right to vote and that homosexuality should be criminalized.” Faced with such an “endless train of sick jokes,” Sykes worries that Americans have “become numbed” to it all.

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Loser Trump also rejected in Orban's big election loss: expert

Hungary’s most consequential election in decades has just delivered an important victory for democracy and accountability.

For Hungarians, opposition leader Péter Magyar’s emphatic defeat of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his ruling Fidesz Party ends 16 years of corruption and quasi-authoritarianism.

The outcome will also be felt widely, from Moscow to Washington and beyond.

In a contest characterised as a referendum on whether Hungary should pivot west or continue its authoritarian drift, Magyar’s victory is a stern rebuke to the dark, transnational forces of nativism, division and the politics of resentment that have become part of mainstream political discourse.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the election was not the turnout (more than 74%, shattering previous records), or even the result (a two-thirds supermajority for Magyar’s Tisza party, winning at least 138 of 199 parliamentary seats).

Both had been predicted for some time, and Orbán’s soft authoritarianism had always left the door ajar for a possible opposition victory at the polls.

Rather, the biggest surprise might have been Orbán’s immediate concession. He didn’t try to manufacture a crisis or use his security services to hold onto power. Given the strength of anti-government sentiment in Hungary, such a move could have led to a “colour revolution” – the type of massive street protests seen previously in Ukraine, Georgia and other countries.

This could have turned bloody. Liberal Hungarians, and the European Union more broadly, will be heaving a collective sigh of relief.

Why Orbán was suddenly vulnerable

Having won office, Magyar will need to move quickly but also carefully to bring change, so as not to alienate too many former Fidesz voters.

He has already asked President Tamaś Sulyok to resign, along with other Orbán loyalists. The Tisza supermajority in parliament is important here. It will be required for constitutional amendments to dismantle the architecture of Orbán’s authoritarian state.

Fortunately, this will be easier in Hungary than fully fledged autocratic systems. Indeed, Orbán’s longevity can somewhat be attributed to the fact that his brand of authoritarianism was only partial.

Certainly, it had the structural elements of an autocracy. That included widespread, government-controlled gerrymandering to ensure Fidesz victories, and the cynical diversion of state funds to cities and provinces controlled by Orbán’s political allies.

In addition, the nationalised media ecosystem was heavily supportive of the government, although alternative voices kept debate alive via foreign-owned news organisations.

But Orbán’s success also came from facing weak and easily fragmented or coopted oppositions. Magyar – a former Orbán ally – ran a disciplined campaign that nullified the electoral advantage for Fidesz.

Ultimately, though, when voters have a choice – even a constrained one – they will eventually reject governments that rely on blame and victimhood to mask their inability to offer people a better future.

Under Orbán, Hungary was consistently ranked the most corrupt nation in Europe. In 2025, it ranked last in the EU on relative household wealth. It had also suffered rampant inflation and economic stagnation after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Video footage of country estates built by Hungary’s elites, complete with zebras roaming the grounds, perfectly symbolised the popular outrage with wealth inequality.

A setback for Putin, Trump and right-wing populism

Hungary’s new start also sends a powerful message to other nations. Clearly the biggest loser from the election is Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which had hastily tapped Kremlin powerbroker Sergey Kiriyenko and a team of “political technologists” to assist Orbán.

Under Orbán, Hungary was the strongest pro-Kremlin voice in the EU. It regularly stymied aid packages for Ukraine, tied up decision-making on the war in bureaucratic processes, and held the European Commission to ransom by threatening hold-out votes.

In fact, just days before the election, Bloomberg published a transcript of a phone call between Orbán and Putin from October 2025, in which Orbán compared himself to a mouse helping free the caged Russian lion.

This came on the back of revelations that Orbán’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, and other Hungarian officials had regularly been leaking confidential EU discussions to Moscow.

Another loser from the Hungarian election is the Trump White House.

The pre-election Budapest visit by US Vice President JD Vance to shore up support for Orbán was breathtakingly hypocritical. Vance farcically demanded an end to foreign election meddling, while engaging in precisely that. The White House then doubled down, with Trump promising on Truth Social to aid Orbán with the “full Economic Might of the United States”.

Now, though, Trump is very publicly on the losing side. And like the debacle of his Iran war, he tends to chafe at losing.

The election also shows that US foreign interference campaigns are not invulnerable, though the White House will doubtless continue excoriating Europe. The Trump administration’s view that Europe is heading for “civilisational erasure”, necessitating US efforts to “cultivate resistance” and “help Europe correct its current trajectory” is documented in its 2025 National Security Strategy.

But the broader movements representing what Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar calls the “Putinisation of global politics” have been repudiated by Hungary’s election result.

Under Orbán, Hungary was a hub for ultraconservative voices. Think tanks like the MAGA-boosting US Heritage Foundation and Hungary’s Danube Institute regularly held prominent dialogues bemoaning Europe’s capitulation to wokeism.

The Hungarian iteration of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), sponsored by the American Conservative Union, was a key calendar for Western right-wing politicians and commentators, including former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

China will also be keenly watching Magyar’s new government, especially since it has viewed Hungary as a soft entry point to the EU. The large-scale investment in electric vehicle manufacturing, especially battery production, are part of a growing Chinese business footprint in the country.

For Beijing, the question will be whether Magyar seeks to sacrifice this lucrative investment to burnish his European credentials.

What about the winners?

In addition to Hungarians outside Orbán’s orbit of elites, the EU will welcome the news that it remains an attractive force.

Ukraine, too, may find it easier to secure European assistance. At the very least, smaller Ukraine detractors like Slovakia will have to choose between acquiescing quietly or thrusting themselves uncomfortably into the open.

Yet, although Hungary’s result is promising, the world is still trending towards illiberalism.

And with the US midterm elections fast approaching, far-right American politicians, including Trump himself, will be studying Hungary’s lessons closely. If they conclude that Orbán’s brand of authoritarianism was too soft, a more hardline path looms as an ominous alternative.The Conversation

Matthew Sussex, Associate Professor (Adj), Griffith Asia Institute; and Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Trump 'crashing out' over Orban loss: 'He can't handle the truth'

On Sunday, far-right Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban was voted out of office after 16 years of dictatorial rule. His defeat not only spelled significant change for the nation of Hungary, but was widely interpreted as a major blow against far-right movements around the world, including MAGA in the United States. As a result, President Donald Trump is “crashing out” in the face of a bad sign for his authoritarian political project.

Following Orban’s loss, Trump — usually not shy about sharing his thoughts on any subject — declined to answer questions from reporters about the election, making a quick escape to board Air Force One. Many who watched this exit online were struck by the typically wordy president’s lack of response.

"You can tell he’s so close to crashing out lmao,” wrote one commenter on a NewsNation broadcast of the moment. "He can't handle the truth," said another, with a third still declaring, "LOL. This has been a week of huge losses in the life of this big loser."

It may seem strange for an American president to hang so much importance on a Hungarian election, but not only has Orban been a longtime “illiberal” ally of Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he had become something of a superstar within the MAGA movement, garnering headline appearances at events like CPAC due to the popularity of his conservative, anti-immigrant, authoritarian policies within the Republican Party.

Orban’s election or lack thereof was viewed as so symbolically vital to MAGA that Vice President JD Vance was sent to Hungary during the final days of the race in an attempt to help build support. Vance’s appearance did not have the desired effect, as Orban’s party was defeated by a landslide.

For many within the MAGA-sphere, the rise of figures like Orban and Trump has been embraced as a signal of the growing power of the far-right movement and its righteous if not outright fated assumption of power around the globe. But Orban’s loss suggests that history is not as inevitable as they thought.

As Ivan Krastev, chair of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria, explained, Orban’s loss will have “an incredible psychological impact” on the far-right. Or as Orban biographer Pal Daniel Renyi put it, the election is proof to Orban, Trump, and their followers that “nothing lasts forever.”

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No safe haven for MAGA as global resistance crushes Trump allies

President Donald Trump is seeing ominous signs to his power as anti-fascists in other nations successfully circumvent authoritarian hurdles to remove far right leaders from power. In a recent report, the situation facing Americans under Trump was compared to that of peoples in the nations of Brazil, Serbia and Hungary.

"In Brazil’s election on Sunday, democracy prevailed. After losing the 2022 election, Jair Bolsonaro pushed false claims that the election was rigged," reported The Fulcrum's Julie Roland and Marcelo Ramirez on Thursday. "Then, in a January 6th–like episode, his supporters stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace. Brazil’s electoral court banned Bolsonaro from office until 2030 for his attacks on the voting system, and its Supreme Court later sentenced him to 27 years for plotting a coup. Trump called him a “good man,” slapped a 50 percent tariff on the entire country in protest, and Bolsonaro’s son ran in his place, against President and Workers’ Party candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva."

Roland and Ramirez continued, "The algorithm picked a side. There were more than 1,100 reports of largely pro-Lula accounts being removed or throttled on Meta’s platforms, and Lula’s own ad account getting briefly suspended. Brazil’s electoral court had to give Meta 24 hours to prove it wasn’t playing favorites. Meta denied any favoritism, but few were convinced; hundreds protested outside Meta’s São Paulo headquarters. Americans have reason for doubt, too. During this month’s No Kings rallies, Meta disabled the No Kings Instagram account for more than four hours, blaming a bot-detection glitch."

Despite the algorithms being biased against Lula, the reporters noted that he managed to win in his runoff election.

"The same day, Serbia flipped," the journalists said. "After the concrete canopy of a newly renovated train station in Novi Sad collapsed in 2024, killing 16 people, students took to the streets…and never really left. The youth lobby doesn’t have deep pockets, but it has something money can’t buy: energy. Thanks to the highest voter turnout since Serbian independence, their youth-led party Student List won a majority. Aleksandar Vučić’s camp conceded. I’ve written before about why so many young people sit out elections, but Serbia just proved what happens when they don’t."

They added, "Earlier this year, community power won in Hungary, too. Viktor Orbán spent 16 years building a propaganda machine and empire, JD Vance flew in to campaign for him, and Trump promised American “economic might” only if Orbán’s party won, but grassroots politics prevailed. Orbán’s opponent, Péter Magyar, went town to town, village to village, for two years, including in Orbán’s rural base. Then, in April, Hungarians turned out in record numbers, winning Magyar’s party a two-thirds majority. Orbán conceded."

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MAGA merch shops across the country close as Trump 'peaks'

On Monday, a new report revealed a rising crisis in MAGA world. According to the Guardian, stores selling merchandise focused on President Donald Trump are closing across the country as “political reality” sinks in among his supporters: the lame duck president’s era is coming to an end.

“MAGA retailers find themselves confronting a challenging political reality,” writes the Guardian. "That the president is an unpopular lame duck with no reelection campaign on the horizon to fuel sales.” As Ron Solomon, who runs the online retailer MAGA Mall, told the outlet, roughly 20 stores across the U.S. sell Trump merchandise, but over the past year, at least four stores nationwide have shut down, including in states where the president overperformed in 2024.

“He's no longer a viable business model for entrepreneurs because he has peaked,” explained Wes Alker, a Trump supporter who frequented a store in Pennsylvania. According to the Guardian, the closures come amid a wider sales slump for MAGA merchandise, as retailers selling hats, T-shirts, and other items bearing the president’s likeness and slogans have seen a steep sales decline. Some retailers blamed economic conditions, with inflation driving up prices even for official Trump merchandise. Trump’s approval rating has plunged to historic lows in recent months as voters have become increasingly angry with cost of living issues and the ongoing Iran war, the consequences of which have spiraled out with no clear end in sight.

The MAGA merch sales drop, however, began even before the president’s approval cratered. In January, the Trump Store in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, announced it was ending its brick-and-mortar operations after six years in business. “The store has kind of run its course,” explained owner Mike Domanico. “You know, it's been six years and the elections are over. Trump's not gonna be in another election, even though he'll be part of it.” David Russell, who frequented the store, noted, “Most of the stuff they sell was to promote Trump. He's already in this last term. You can't do much more for him than he's already gotten.”

A Trump superstore near Knoxville, Tennessee, closed later in the year, and owner Bill Hays said outright that some of the president’s policies – like the DOGE spending cuts – had hurt business. He also mentioned that some customers were choosing to have their purchases bagged instead of wearing their new Trump gear out of the store. “People were not wearing their colors, so to speak, like they did before the [2024] election," Hays said, noting that his sales had plummeted to $20,000 a month from a high of $200,000. “After the inauguration, I think a lot of people felt that their job was done,” he said.

But a few MAGA shops are still staggering on. Rob Cortis, who runs the Trump Unity Bridge Shop in Michigan, told the Guardian that he doesn’t plan on closing. “There’s still the chance that Trump always pulls rabbits out of his hat,” he said. “Is he gonna run in 2028?”

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Trump is now toxic with the allies he never expected to lose: report

The Washington Post reports nationalist, MAGA-style parties are notching election victories and leading in the polls across Europe, but the “recipe for their success” appears to be steering clear of Trump and his MAGA allies.

“I can’t remember them being mentioned once,” said Leaders of Alternative for Germany politician Leif-Erik Holm, who finished first in a regional election in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, of his own campaign, which ended two weeks after the Saxony-Anhalt vote.

The Post reports leaders of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, “scaled back their public interactions with MAGA figures, acknowledged differences of interest with the U.S. and focused their message on domestic issues.” And in France, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, who is polling ahead of next year’s election, has similarly ejected Trump and his buddies from her campaign after calling the Iran war a strategic mistake.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is now set to lead a state government with policies that could have come straight from the MAGA playbook, with the party having campaigned on deporting migrants and cutting funding to museums with “anti-patriotic goals.” Yet the Times reports Trump and the U.S. were “largely absent during the campaign.”

“A lot of people say Trump is arrogant, dangerous, not well-qualified. You see an intensification in his second term of things people didn’t like in the first term,” said Richard Wike, Pew’s director of global attitudes research. “That may create incentives for all sorts of political leaders not to embrace him.”

But backing Europe’s antiestablishment right was an official goal of the Trump administration. The Post reports the State Department even promised grants to organizations promoting what it described as “European sovereignty and other conservative values.”

“Late last year, an updated U.S. national-security strategy said the U.S. supported ‘patriotic European parties’ and would cultivate ‘resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations,’” reports the Post.

But this year Trump has put his popularity and the popularity of his nation in a hole, and the Post reports an increasing number of countries view China “more favorably” than the U.S., and Xi Jinping “as a more credible leader in managing world affairs,” according to a Pew Research Center report. Similar surveys reveal many right-wing Europeans share unfavorable views of Trump.

For this, Trump can probably thank his war with Iran, which is continuing to obliterate his national and international standing — and threatens to destabilize the global and US economy with high energy prices.

“It looks like they launched this campaign without much of a concept. It’s a bit of a disaster,” said AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, speaking of Trump’s war on Iran.

Additionally, Trump’s positions on a range of issues, including tariffs, the ownership of Greenland and the war in Ukraine, keep clashing with European interests — even the nationalist ones, reports the Times. Trump’s unbreakable link to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán may have helped the leader lose his re-election bid, to Trump’s ire.

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CNN host corners top GOP official over lack of 'concern' for economy

On Monday, a top Republican official found himself flailing to defend President Donald Trump and the GOP’s inattention to the economic suffering of Americans. According to Mike Hurst – Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party and general counsel for the Republican National Committee – inflation is “not a chief concern for our party.”

Hurst was appearing on CNN when host Boris Sanchez asked about “one of the chief concerns for voters, and that is gas prices.” As Sanchez explained, “Under President Trump's second term, the average is now higher than under President Biden, driven by the war with Iran. Almost eight months into this war, officials tell CNN that Trump is leaning toward major new strikes after the election. Can you tell us whether Senator Hyde-Smith supports renewed war with Iran?” His question comes as polls show Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) – who has consistently supported the war’s continuation, voting against resolutions to end it – is fighting a surprisingly tight race considering Mississippi’s firmly deep red history against Democratic candidate Scott Colom. According to the latest surveys, her lead may be as narrow as three points.

“I think what Senator Hyde-Smith and the Republicans support is a no nuclear Iran,” said Hurst. “Yes, gas prices are a little bit higher. But what I can also tell you is the wages are higher for Americans.” While this assertion is accurate, Hurst did not mention the fact that inflation has outpaced wage gains, squeezing Americans’ paychecks more and more. And while he attempted to promote a handful of Trump’s economic policies like the elimination of tax on tips and overtime, recent numbers show that the average American household has paid $1,100 for the war, so far. “So yeah,” asserted Hurst, ”while gas prices are a little bit higher, the overall economy and the average American is doing better than they ever did during the four years of Joe Biden.”

“President Trump himself said that Iran's nuclear program was totally annihilated the summer before, only a few months before he launched these renewed attacks in February,” countered Sanchez. “And generally, in terms of the economy, inflation is higher now than when President Trump took office some 20 months ago. So is your view that these higher gas prices are not a chief concern for your party?”

“It's not a chief concern for our party because we're making our country safer,” said Hurst, before stammering a reference to sacrifices made during World War 2. “That great generation had to step up and defend our liberty and our freedom. And right now, that's what President Trump is doing. We forget how we were the laughing stock of the world during the Biden administration. Now we are respected once again, and President Trump is making us safer.” Polls indicate that Americans disagree, with the latest numbers from Pew showing that just 35 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of foreign policy, including the war.

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'Third-rate' America welcomes losers exiled from other democracies: top historian

In the wake of Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán’s electoral loss — which was widely interpreted as a major blow to the global MAGA movement — a number of his cronies have been forced to flee abroad. Among these is Polish politician Zbigniew Ziobro, who fled to Hungary in 2023 after his attempts to instill Poland with authoritarianism failed. Now Ziobro has gone to the United States under the protection of President Donald Trump, and according to renowned historian and fascism expert Timothy Snyder, this raises disturbing questions about the present state of the U.S.

As Snyder explains, by the time Ziobro arrived in Hungary, he was on the run from serious crimes. As a justice minister in Poland, he was found guilty of mishandling funds intended to be used for the victims of crime, diverting the money instead to a spyware program he leveraged to monitor journalists and political opponents. In Hungary, he appeared safe alongside fellow authoritarian Orban, but when the latter lost power, the likes of Ziobro were no longer welcome.

“Hungary will no longer be a dumping ground for internationally wanted criminals,” said Orban’s successor Peter Magyar, who called out Ziobro by name.

“When democracy wins, the losers go to America, it seems,” said Snyder. “What was left for Ziobro? The United States. You might not have heard of Ziobro, but Donald Trump has.”

Ziobro’s arrival in the U.S. has caused a global scandal. As Snyder notes, “Ziobro is a wanted man with no passport. The Trump White House just went to a good deal of trouble to bring him to the U.S.” The international community is wondering how Ziobro could have crossed the border without a passport, with many suggesting that it could only have been done with the express support of the Trump administration. Now Poland says it expects the U.S. to extradite Ziobro to face charges.

“This teaches us, once again, how much the Trump project is an international one,” explains Snyder. “Americans are punished every day, but foreign authoritarian friends are remembered.”

Beyond the many legal and political issues this situation raises, Snyder argues that Trump’s willingness to embrace Ziobro prompts pressing questions about the ethics underpinning American society.

“What does this mean about our country when we become a place where we welcome people who are accused of corruption, we welcome people who are architects of attempted authoritarian transitions, we welcome people who are fleeing not only from their own country but from another attempted authoritarian regime — what does that mean?” Snyder muses. “Doesn’t that make us a bit third-rate ourselves — to become the kind of third repository of people like this?”

To Snyder, it comes down to a matter of identity: “It’s a question for us as Americans. Don’t we all agree that we would like the rule of law? Don’t we all agree that we would like for politicians at home or abroad to be following the rule of law? What does it mean when we go around the law to bring people to our country who are serious opponents to the rule of law? What does it mean when the people who get special treatment in the United States are precisely those who have been trying to break democracy elsewhere? What does that say about us?”

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Historian preps for disaster scenario as Trump plans to do 'what losers do'

Historian Timothy D. Snyder knows what is likely coming on the evening of Nov. 3 and it's allegations that the election was "rigged." He wants Americans ready and prepared to respond quickly, if not before he makes the claim.

Speaking to former GOP strategist Steve Schmitt, Snyder said he doesn't want to think of it as first you vote and second you act.

"The other part is being prepared to win," he said, "because I agree with you completely in your forecast. I think this is going to be overwhelming. I think it's going to be bigger than people think basically. And I think, if anything, the Democrats are scared to imagine how big their victory is going to be because if it's big they're going to have to take responsibility for stuff. So, part of it is not just voting and being like, 'oh, what is Trump going to do?' But think, you know what? The people I'm voting for are going to win. And I'm willing to take action along those lines, which means telling people how I voted, telling people what I expected, doing your own media work."

The other thing it means, he said, is that Americans must "call the shot in advance," a pool metaphor for calling which ball will go into which pocket.

"However we think it's going to go, your scenario is very plausible, probably I have some other ideas of what they might do," he continued. "But whatever they do, it's what losers do. And you have to get that out ahead of time and you have to be ready to laugh at it. Like every trick that Trump can play has been played by Viktor Orban, or has been played by somebody else in the last couple of years. You have to get out in front of people and say, look, when they do that, like when Trump claims that he won, that's what he did because he lost, right? And it's the kind of thing that losers do."

In the media space, he said that Democrats must come out ready to tell their story about why they won and how they intend to use that win to deliver on the top issues like the affordability crisis, gas prices and corruption.

"Morning of Nov. 4th we should be thinking about money out of politics, end of corruption. We should be thinking about things that are good that could happen," Snyder said.

Doing that will inoculate everyone against Trump's idea that he really won and that it was all rigged.

"Trump going on TV and saying, well, you know, I'm raising my hand to say that by the way they stole the election again, it will seem a little archaic and silly," Snyder explained. Especially "if you can put it in the context of, 'Hey, we actually have a moment of hope.'"

He warned that letting Trump frame the narrative gives him a better chance of being taken seriously. Instead, he wants Democrats and those around them to frame it as "we're going to start doing really important and transformative stuff, I think that makes the setting much harder for Trump to do the kind of thing that you're describing."

One of the disaster scenarios that conservative retired Judge Michael Luddig warned about is that Republicans could refuse to seat any of the Democratic lawmakers elected. Snyder thinks Trump has likely already had that conversation, along with every other possibility.

"We should deny that Trump is omnipotent, because he's not. And the things that he might wish to happen still depend on other people fulfilling his wishes, and whether they fulfill his wishes are going to depend on how big the Democratic victory is, whether those people think that they might go to prison for what they're doing and also the overall atmosphere."


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'Post-MAGA era' is here as big business breaks with Trump: Nobel economist

There are major signs that big business is breaking with President Donald Trump over the chaos sown by his agenda. This is according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, who explained on Thursday why the actions of one of the country’s most prominent financial figures suggest that the “post-MAGA era” is here.

“On September 28th, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, one of the most prominent, most successful financial figures in the United States, published an article in the Wall Street Journal titled, ‘The Hell with Trump, Let’s Go Back to Globalism,’” said Krugman. “Okay, that’s a lie. That wasn’t what the article was titled, but it was, in effect, what it said. And it was a very interesting message to be coming at this moment in time. I think Dimon’s op-ed can be viewed as a harbinger of a big shift in the business community’s political positions and its attitudes that may be coming in the very near future — in effect a bet that Trump and MAGA in general are going to be in the rearview mirror, not too far from now.”

As Krugman explains, Dimon is an “extraordinarily successful financial leader” and a “very, very smart political operator” who has managed to stay on good terms with administrations from both parties. After the 2024 election, he neither joined the “cavalcade of business leaders rushing to prostrate themselves at Trump’s feet,” nor did he end up on his list of enemies. But now, says Krugman, he’s calling to repair the Western alliance and rebuild ties with Europe to confront the rising power of China, proposing that the best way to achieve that is by forging a free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union.

“That’s quite something,” asserts Krugman. “That’s a very un-MAGA position to take. You want to bear in mind that, first of all, we’re currently under a government of people who do not at all believe in the virtues of free trade. In fact, are extremely hostile to globalism. Certainly don’t believe in binding international agreements. Maybe they want agreements that bind other countries, but not them. And they are also not of the mind that we have a lot of shared values with the democratic governments of Europe. The MAGA position, if anything, is that they like the anti-democratic forces in Europe. J.D. Vance essentially campaigned for Viktor Orban in Hungary. Trump officials have been quite clear that they have sympathy for the AfD in Germany. So if we have common values with some Europeans, the Europeans with whom they have common values are neo-Nazis. And Trump’s de facto support for Putin in his invasion of Ukraine has been alarmingly clear over the past two years.” But now Dimon is rejecting that, and Krugman argues that it suggests he believes Trump and MAGA are on their way out.

According to Krugman, the economic benefits of Dimon’s free trade idea are actually not all that drastic. Europe only exports roughly three percent of its production to the US, and before Trump’s second term, the two entities were practically on a free trade basis anyways. But in Krugman’s estimation, “Dimon believes that the process of negotiating towards a free trade agreement would in itself help to improve politics. That it would be a signal that the ultra-nationalist, anti-democratic, often anti-European policies of theTrump era are behind us. So he’s looking forward to the day when we can start to try to repair some of the immense damage that has been done to our international relations during the Trump years.” With the writing on the wall for the Republican midterms, Dimon thinks the time for “rebuilding an alliance” is near. “He thinks that this is possible,” concludes Krugman, “and that it’s worth positioning himself and his institution for a post-MAGA era.”

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