Viktor Orban, the hardline nationalist, anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim prime minister of Hungary, has taken the highly unusual step of endorsing the sitting U.S. president for a second term.
The strongman said he appreciated President Donald Trump’s refusal to be swayed by morality.
“We root for Donald Trump’s victory because we know well American Democratic government's diplomacy, built on moral imperialism,” he said in a statement published Monday. “We have been forced to sample it before, we did not like it, we do not want seconds.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Orban will face his own re-election battle in 2022 and would undoubtedly welcome an endorsement from Trump. “They prepare for a decisive battle in 2022, backed by the international media, Brussels bureaucrats, and NGOs disguised as civil organizations,” Orban wrote. “It is time for us to line up too.”
Trump’s illiberal instincts and outbursts like shouting “12 more years” at the Republican National Convention in August, have played well with the dictatorial set.
During interviews for Bob Woodward’s new book Rage, Trump admitted he has a soft spot for dictators. “The tougher and mean they are, the better I get along with them,” he said.
Orban’s endorsement follows other hard-line leaders, including Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan, who condemned Joe Biden as “interventionist” over the weekend.
“Nobody can attack our nation’s will and democracy or question the legitimacy of our President, who was elected by popular vote,” Erdogan’s press secretary wrote on Twitter. “We believe that these unbecoming statements, which have no place in diplomacy by a presidential candidate from our NATO ally, the United States, are unacceptable to the current administration too.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that President Vladimir Putin is once again instructing his state apparatus to help Trump win the election.
Last month, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center announced that the Russians were actively trying to undermine Biden.
“We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia 'establishment.' This is consistent with Moscow’s public criticism of him when he was Vice President for his role in the Obama Administration’s policies on Ukraine and its support for the anti-Putin opposition inside Russia,” William Evanina said.
Russian state television also makes it clear that Putin is backing Trump. The Kremlin has not publicly endorsed him, but it continues to orchestrate pro-Trump propaganda. Lawmakers, state media experts, and pro-Putin pundits on the closely-monitored TV stations happily make it clear that the Kremlin is still backing Trump.
Other conservative politicians, including Italy’s Matteo Salvini, who is poised to make gains in regional elections on Monday, have endorsed a second term for Trump.
Nigel Farage, the Brexit leader, has continued to campaign for Trump and predicts that he will defeat Biden in November.
