REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh
Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka voiced his support for anti-Semitic Hungarian militia the Hungarian Guard in a televised interview, The Forward reports. Speaking to a Hungarian television station in 2007, Gorka said he supported a right-wing party’s decision to form the Hungarian Guard, despite allegations that the militia was violent, anti-Semitic, and emulated Hungary’s Nazi-era Arrow Cross regime. Gorka defended the militia during the 11-minute interview, citing “a big societal need” for paramilitary groups in Hungary because the country’s military “is sick, and totally reflects the state of Hungarian society... This country cannot defend itself.” Gorka, then the leader of Hungary’s UDK party, appeared above the chyron “UDK Supports the Hungarian Guard.” The UDK party also made similar statements in defense of the Hungarian Guard. “We support the establishment of the Hungarian Guard despite the personalities involved,” the party said in 2007 in response to allegations of violence and racial bias in the militia.
Asked whether the Guard was contributing to a rise in anti-Semitism in Hungary, Gorka denounced the allegations as political. “This is a tool,” Gorka said of the allegations. “This type of accusation is the very useful tool of a certain political class.” The Guard was banned in 2008, after multiple court rulings found the militia to be a threat to Hungarian minorities. In 2008, a high-ranking Guard captain called Jews “Zionist rats” and “locusts,” and called Hungarian Jews “nation-destroyers.” Gorka is President Trump’s chief counterterrorism adviser.