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

President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement have caused a major disruption in the partisan nature of "patriotism," according to an extensive new report from Politico, mirroring a similar shift caused by the far right on a global scale.

On Sunday, Politico reported on the findings of its latest poll, claiming that "Patriotism has become partisan," according to respondents from all over the world, at least as far as expressions of national pride are concerned.

"It doesn’t matter that people across the ideological spectrum are equally likely to say that they themselves are patriotic. New international polling shows that when you ask them about expressions of patriotism, they think those displays are right-coded," the report detailed. "Those results from The POLITICO Poll reveal the extent of right-wing populist parties’ success after years of claiming nationalism as central to their political identities — and growing in power and popularity."

According to the poll's findings in the U.S., "respondents were 15 points more likely to expect someone who said they were proud to be American to be Republican (38) than Democratic (23)." Despite that notable perception, the poll also found that, overall, "pride in one’s country is essentially nonpartisan," with 68 percent of U.S. adults, "including most Trump 2024 voters and former Vice President Kamala Harris voters," agreeing that they were proud to be Americans. Similar majorities were found amongst respondents across the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain.

"The findings are the latest sign that these parties — from Donald Trump’s 'America First' movement in the United States to the rise of the far right across Europe — are owning the language and symbols of patriotism, including a country’s flag," the report added. "Right-wing parties have rapidly gained ground by tapping into voters’ growing concerns over border security and cost of living, and have flexed their power over the last decade, reshaping existing debates over conservatism, sovereignty and national identity. In some cases, they have pushed major political parties, like America’s GOP, further to the right."

It continued later: "In the United States, Trump’s 'America First' agenda and 'Make America Great Again' movement have explicitly made national identity central to Republican messaging. The president has vowed to secure the southern border, conduct widespread deportations and prioritize aggressive trade politics aimed at boosting the U.S. economy."

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has been releasing many classified documents related to years of government study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and one political theorist thinks something else is afoot.

Writing for The Bulwark on Wednesday, Yaniv Regev explained that Trump's UFO obsession is less about transparency, national security, a casual interest in science fiction films and his populist supporters advocating for the tearing down of institutions. It's about politics. Not the politics of distraction, as Alex Jones claimed, but the politics of manipulation.

The "release the documents" argument, he said, makes sense intuitively. After all, the government hides too much, transparency is good, and a more "informed citizenry is an empowered one." It certainly would play well in polling, but Regev thinks it's being weaponized.

Regev compared Trump to his international counterparts like Jair Bolsonaro and Viktor Orban, each of whom "built a political career railing against hidden elites and demanding the state be exposed to the light — and each, once in power, governed with conspicuous contempt for the accountability he'd once claimed to champion."

Leaders like Trump are trying to build "distrust" while "casting themselves as truthtellers willing to rip back the curtain, populists reify this distrust, transforming it into a political force they can control," wrote Regev. "If there’s a curtain to be torn, as the populists howl, we must conclude there is something big hiding behind it."

So, the files have been released, leaving more questions than answers. Regev described them as the Department of Defense making clear that they have investigated many of the reports and their experts can't crack it.

The Trump administration seems to think, why not let the masses have a crack at it? "Here’s some footage we cannot explain. You figure it out," he said.

But in the case of the UFO files, there's no real way of understanding the data that was released. It's simply a cache of videos and field reports. There are no conclusions or even revelations about what the government learned or discovered.

Like the Jeffrey Epstein investigation the files consist of large batches of raw data with large blocks of black text. The transparency law passed by Congress said that the only redactions were to be the survivors. It bred further mistrust and conspiracy theories that the Justice Department and the political "elite" were continuing to hide things from the public. Regev characterized it a kind of "transparency-to-conspiracy pipeline."

He closed by saying that "transparency maximalism" is like having the sunlight so bright it doesn't just disinfect, but it's so blinding that it leaves people unable to see clearly.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance suffered a major disappointment when, on April 12, far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was voted out of office after 16 years. Although Trump and Vance campaigned aggressively for Orbán — who they considered a valuable ally of the MAGA movement — he lost to Prime Minister-elect Péter Magyar and the Tisza party by roughly 19 percent.

In an op-ed published by The Guardian published on May 7, however, Cas Mudde — an international affairs professor at the University of Georgia and author of the 2019 book "The Far Right Today" — stresses that Orbán's humiliating defeat doesn't mean the populist far right is going away.

"There is simultaneously a consensus that Donald Trump has gone from inspiration to 'liability' for the global far right," Mudde explains. "While the fall of Orbán has great symbolic significance and important consequences for EU politics…. we should be very careful not to read too much into it for three reasons. First, as far as lessons for how to defeat so-called illiberal democrats are concerned, we must bear in mind that Orbán was in power for an exceptionally rare 16 years. This allowed him to oversee not only a political transformation of Hungary, but an economic and societal one…. Second, while the European far right has lost its unofficial leader, it is not in decline…. Third, it is true that Trump is, at the moment, 'toxic' for the far right, although this had no significant effect on the Hungarian election."

Mudde strongly disagrees with claims that the far right is "in decline."

"Sure, some other far-right parties have also recently lost elections (in Bulgaria, for example) or power (the Netherlands)," Mudde argues. "But far-right parties remain in government in a variety of EU member states (Czech Republic, Italy), and lead the polls in several others (Austria, France). The thing is, the far right is here to stay, and many of its parties are as established as the former 'mainstream' parties. And, like other parties, their electoral support fluctuates and is affected by internal and external factors, such as corruption, infighting and crises in government."

Mudde adds, "More importantly, the mainstreaming and normalization of far-right actors and ideas continue unabated. (Prime Minister) Giorgia Meloni's Italy has become a mandatory pilgrimage site for politicians who try to present themselves as tough on immigration."

Trump, according to Mudde, "helps the European far right simply by being the U.S. president."

"Even worse," the University of Georgia professor warns, "because Trump's behavior is so extreme and often seems unhinged, it is very easy for European far-right leaders to seem 'moderate' in comparison — after all, he or she is 'not as bad as Trump.' This endless comparison, and the inability to accept that there can be various shades of far right, helps savvy politicians such as Meloni. By not acting aggressively, erratically and loudly like Trump — or, in her own country, Matteo Salvini — she is mistaken for a mere 'conservative' rather than a radical-right politician."

The humiliating demise of Viktor Orban's authoritarian regime is bracing news for endangered democracies, including our own, but America isn't Hungary. Of the parallels that can be drawn between their despot and ours, the most salient may have been commented on the least -- the overwhelming and unprecedented Mafia-style corruption that enriched the ruling family and entrenched their power.

It was the corruption that motivated Peter Magyar, a lifelong loyal appartchik until two years ago, to break with Orban's Fidesz party and inaugurate the campaign to overthrow the regime. It was the corruption that forced the European Union to act against Budapest by withholding billions in funding and isolating its government. And it was the corruption -- so pervasive in Hungary's media, judiciary and business institutions -- that finally drove otherwise conservative Hungarian voters to reject the crooked outfit that had ruled them for 16 years.

Liberals in Hungary celebrated Magyar's election victory, not necessarily because they agree with the new prime minister on every issue -- they don't -- but because he vowed to clean up Orban's legacy of outrageous theft, to enforce accountability and to strengthen the nation's frayed ties with Europe. Relying on his long experience inside the Fidesz machine, Magyar was able to expose its sleazy deals, including a pardon scandal that embroiled his then-wife, who had served as Orban's justice minister.

Like so much of the criminality perpetrated by Orban and his cronies, that pardon affair echoed a train of remarkably similar offenses in the Trump White House. And as Magyar emphasized throughout his innovative grassroots campaign, the cost of Orban's venality fell on ordinary Hungarians, whose national wealth was siphoned off to enrich the dictatorship's cronies.

According to Akos Hadhazy, a leading voice against corruption as an independent member of Hungary's parliament, the Mafia-style graft perpetrated by the Orban regime has looted more than 2.8 billion euros (over $3.2 billion) annually from public funds. Much of that stolen money came from the EU itself, which played a role in the regime's demise by withholding further funds from suspect projects. Among the reasons to renew ties with Brussels, as Magyar often explained, was to facilitate prosecution of the "Orban Mafia" that stole those EU funds.

The details of the Fidesz government's boodling might almost seem quaint in comparison with the high-tech crypto scams hatched in the Trump White House. Viktor Orban's son-in-law, an entrepreneur named Istvan Tiborcz, became wealthy by forming Elios, a company that won multimillion-euro contracts to upgrade street lighting in cities and towns all over the country. Those contracts were financed by the EU, but as auditors later discovered, the project details were designed to favor Tiborcz's firm and eliminate any competition. In fact, the same officials who oversaw the lighting specifications also wrote the Elios bids.

EU investigators recommended that Hungary void those contracts, claw back the money, and commence legal action against the officials and business executives responsible for the scandal. The crooks in Budapest have been "investigating" that case for the past 11 years.

Meanwhile even more public millions flowed into the accounts of Orban's father, Gyozy, whose real estate development company swelled with government and EU contracts -- and is suspected of serving as a front for Orban himself. This arrangement smacks of the millions in U.S. government funding and related payments that have flowed over the years to the Trump Organization.

Various other Orban cronies -- notably including the chief of his cabinet, Antal Rogan, and his closest friend since childhood, Lorinc Meszaros -- have walked away with enormous fortunes. So brazen was Rogan that the U.S. Treasury sanctioned him in January 2025, during the final weeks of the Biden administration.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control found that Rogan had "orchestrated Hungary's system for distributing public contracts and resources to cronies loyal to himself and the Fidesz political party, (including) schemes designed to control several strategic sectors of the Hungarian economy and to divert proceeds from those sectors to himself and to reward loyalists from his political party."

The Trump administration lifted the U.S. sanctions on Rogan within three months of taking office, as part of its broader abandonment of anticorruption agencies and measures throughout government.

As for Meszaros, he is the richest man in Hungary, sitting atop a fortune estimated at over $3 billion. Having started out as a gas-pipe fitter in 2006, with assets worth less than $42,000, his wealth grew exponentially through state energy and construction deals. When asked how this could have happened, Meszaros modestly attributed his wealth to "God, luck and Viktor Orban."

Americans have long seemed indifferent to the orgy of corruption that has characterized President Donald Trump's career and especially his return to power. Citizens whose news consumption is limited to Fox News, Newsmax and the MAGA media have heard little or nothing about the ways that Trump, his wife and offspring, and their circle of supporters have gorged themselves in one shady deal after another, often at risk to our national security.

Yet somehow, despite a state-controlled Hungarian media universe, Magyar's movement brought the truth about Orban's corruption to the people, who responded with appropriate fury. In this country, Democrats of every persuasion must convey to every American voter that same message about the decadent MAGA movement and its greedy overlord.

Dispatch columnist Nick Catoggio says President Donald Trump has plopped such a noxious odor on right-wing ideology that even ideological diehards are leaping out of windows to avoid him.

“After 10 years of degrading bootlicking obeisance by the president’s many courtiers, it was startling to see someone who needs a relationship with Trump assert her dignity against his insults,” said Catoggio, speaking of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s epic takedown and denial of Trump’s claim that she “begged” him to “take a picture with him.”

In reaction Meloni exploded onto the news cycle, declaring that neither she nor Italy begs for anything.

Of course Trump said it, suspects Catoggio: “Casually demeaning someone because he bears them a grudge is as instinctive to Donald Trump as applying bronzer or bloviating about ‘strength.’”

“But those who need to stay on his good side — like, say, every Republican official in the country — are doomed to follow the Ted Cruz career arc between 2016 and 2021, broadly speaking,” Catoggio added. “That is, if Trump insults your wife, you find a way to let it slide and salute when he asks you to help him stage a coup.”

Additionally, if you’re a European leader trying to cobble NATO together and keep Trump from siding with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Catoggio said “the cowardice of the American leadership class” leaves you with few allies within the U.S. willing to support your resistance to Trump.

“And so the prudent, if pathetic, thing to do when an imperious postliberal goblin insulted you was to bite your tongue,” said Catoggio. “Not Meloni, though. She’s had enough.”

Still, Catoggio suspects Trump’s character and behavior on other matters is driving the Italian leader's anger.

“She’s a right-wing nationalist, like the president himself. She promotes Christian values and the traditional family model, and presumably she’d like to see that vision make inroads across the continent,” Catoggio said. But “Trump is killing her chances.”

“The more right-wing politics becomes associated with fat orange clownery, the less European voters will want any part of it,” said Catoggio — and she’s not the only right wing leader fearing for the stain Trump leaves on their argument.

Far-right European leaders, he said, have been running away from the president for months, in fact. Anger at the Iran war’s global impact on energy costs is a start, but Trump’s behavior is also to blame.

Jordan Bardella, the head of France’s leading nationalist party summed up Trump’s antics as, “not only erratic but also extremely unsteady and constantly shifting. … [We need to] allow powers that are a bit bewildered by the United States — and who no longer understand the comings and goings of the American president, particularly on defense — to be able to find in the French defense industry a backup option.”

“The incident with Meloni is simply another bewildering episode involving the American president that can only hurt the United States and make the global right he unofficially leads look petty, tactless, impetuous, and stupid,” said Catoggio. “Maybe Meloni’s irritation is less a product of her pride being wounded than her resentment at being saddled with a prominent ideological ally who’s discrediting their mutual cause. She’s doing what she can to re-dignify it.”

Catoggio added that congressional Republicans should meditate on Meloni’s streak of independence, but he added “we’re waaaaaaay past the point of salvaging the respectability of right-wing politics in the U.S.”

“So enjoy the Giorgian rebellion abroad,” he concluded. “It’s the closest to dignity from a conservative official that you and I will witness in 2026.”

A Politico analysis argues that Trump's second-term foreign policy signifies a fundamental departure from his nationalist messaging, undermining his political brand and effectiveness on the worldwide stage.

The piece contends that Trump, who built his political identity around nationalist principles—particularly his 2016 endorsement of Brexit—has lost sight of the power of national sovereignty and patriotism in other countries. During his first campaign, Trump positioned himself as "Mr. Brexit," championing the principle that nations ought to prioritize self-determination over international institutions.

In his second term, however, Trump has repeatedly attempted to override other nations' sovereignty through aggressive economic and military pressure, failing to recognize that the same nationalist sentiment he once championed would provoke resistance rather than compliance. His strategy of bullying and coercion has backfired consistently:

• Canada's new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, emerged in response to Trump's tariff threats and annexation rhetoric, now leading "middle-power resistance" against American economic domination.
• Ukraine rejected Trump's heavy-handed peace proposals that included demands for mineral wealth, with President Zelenskyy facing no domestic consequences for the refusal.
• Attempts to influence judicial decisions in Brazil, secure control of British and Spanish airfields, and dictate Israeli military strategy all failed.
• Trump's interference in Hungary's election did not prevent Viktor Orbán's landslide defeat.
• His military strategy against Iran resulted in a costly stalemate that spiked global energy prices.

The analysis notes that even Trump's allies on the global right have grown critical. French far-right politician Jordan Bardella publicly rejected Trump's backing, describing the current administration as "extremely unsteady and constantly shifting" and comparing U.S. actions to those of an empire rather than a nationalist ally.

The piece identifies a key strategic change: Trump has obscured the distinction between legitimate nationalist politics—prioritizing national identity over international institutions—and unilateral American imperialism that seeks to impose American will globally. This confusion has weakened his standing with international right-wing movements that formerly admired him, the Politico piece argues.

Trump's strong-arming has succeeded primarily in economically dependent nations like Argentina, Honduras, and Venezuela, but has proven ineffective against stable democracies with great national pride. The example of former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who declared willingness to "impoverish the country" rather than accept annexation, illustrates how patriotic sentiment transcends partisan politics.

The report states that Trump may have permanently lost the political clarity that defined his "Mr. Brexit" era, possibly opening space for alternative nationalist leaders in both American parties who can more accurately understand the universal power of national sovereignty and pride.