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.
