Hungarian leader and strongman Viktor Orbán, who presided over the radical decline of democracy in his country, is scheduled to meet with former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on March 8, 2024. Orbán has been Hungary’s prime minister since 2010. Under his leadership, the country became the first nondemocracy in the European Union – an “illiberal state,” as Orbán proudly declared.
Supreme Court – with three Trump-nominated justices – has become a pillar of Trumpism, handing down rulings overturning the constitutional right to abortion and limiting civil rights. Fox, OANN, and other right-wing media ensure that large parts of America see the world through a Trumpian lens. Authoritarian populists tilt the democratic playing field to favor themselves and their personal and political interests.