Late last week, President Joe Biden briefly chatted with reporters before boarding Air Force One, and one journalist asked whether he was concerned about Donald Trump meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. “If I’m not,” the Democrat said, “you should be.”
The incumbent president went further during a campaign event in Pennsylvania a day later. “You know who he’s meeting with today and — down in Mar-a-Lago? Orbán of Hungary, who stated flatly he doesn’t think democracy works,” Biden said, adding, “I see a future where we defend democracy, not diminish it.”
The criticisms were clearly warranted. While it’s unlikely that the 2024 presidential election will be decided on Trump’s embrace of foreign autocrats, the Republican’s increasingly overt hostility toward democracy can and should be a major campaign issue, and his willingness to pal around with Orbán is emblematic of a larger truth.
As an Associated Press report summarized, Trump’s meeting with the Hungarian prime minister reflected the Republican’s continued embrace “of autocratic leaders who are part of a global pushback against democratic traditions.”
Orbán has become an icon to some conservative populists for championing what he calls “illiberal democracy,” replete with restrictions on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. But he’s also cracked down on the press and judiciary in his country and rejiggered the country’s political system to keep his party in power while maintaining the closest relationship with Russia among all European Union countries.
To be sure, in recent years, as Orbán has gradually chipped away at Hungary’s democracy, Trump has made little effort to hide his admiration for the autocrat.
“There’s a great man, a great leader in Europe, Viktor Orbán,” the presumptive GOP nominee said at a campaign rally in January. “He’s the prime minister of Hungary. He’s a very great leader, a very strong man. Some people don’t like him…
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