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Boston Globe

How ties between the American right and Hungary's strongman proliferated

Related : Advertisement The Heritage Foundation, the group behind Orbán, for his part, The White House declined to answer questions about Hungary. The Hungarian government's press office and its embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Rufo. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, shown speaking in 2023. J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press Many conservatives say there is no reason for them to apologize for or hide their relationships to Hungary, a US ally and member of the European Union, which they say has been unfairly maligned by Democrats and the mainstream press. Hungary, said Daniel J. Mahoney, a former professor at Assumption University in Worcester who received a paid fellowship at the Danube Institute, should be defended 'from its detractors who defame [it] as an oppressive dictatorship.' Some dissent is tolerated. 'Many Hungarian intellectuals and academics are fiercely opposed to [Orbán's] government and often proselytize in the classroom,' Mahoney said. Opposition parties control the mayor's offices in the biggest cities, including Budapest. Advertisement For Mahoney and other Orbán admirers, Hungary is a singular example of a conservative government successfully beating back liberal influences to promote Christian values, national pride, and what they describe as the interests of the common man. In 2018, a Hungarian foundation commissioned Steve Bannon, Trump's former campaign manager and senior adviser, to give a speech at a Budapest conference, according to a contract between Bannon and the foundation. The foundation, which had been hired by the government to organize the conference, agreed to pay Bannon $20,000 plus expenses for himself and his staff. In his speech, Bannon praised Orbán as 'Trump before Trump' and decried the influence of liberal elites. Bannon didn't respond to requests for comment. During the Biden administration, Hungary cultivated wider ties with American conservatives. The Danube Institute, whose parent foundation receives funding from the Hungarian government, offered paid fellowships to leading activists and intellectuals. Among them was Rod Dreher, a longtime columnist with National Review who is a close friend of Tucker Carlson spoke during the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) Feszt in 2021 in Esztergom, was enamored of the country, particularly Orbán's leadership, he has written in essays and social media posts, and became an influential promoter of Hungary's policies among US conservatives. Dreher didn't respond to requests for comment. He was also a paid 'agent' of the Danube Institute, according to a contract obtained by the Advertisement The Danube Institute István Kiss, the institute's executive director, said he and his organization are not 'mouthpieces' for the Orbán government. The 'ethos' language in the visiting fellow contracts translated poorly from the original Hungarian, he said. It was meant merely to 'avoid a situation [where] somebody is getting money from us and says bad things about the institute itself,' he said. From Budapest in 2021, Dreher texted Carlson, then the during a recorded Carlson did in fact visit, and made a documentary that was a sensation in conservative circles and further elevated Orbán within the American right. It portrayed Hungary as a fundamentally conservative country with a no-nonsense border policy and an unapologetic embrace of its Christian identity. Titled 'Hungary vs. Soros: The Fight for Civilization,' it depicted Soros, a long-time bogeyman for the right, as working from the shadows to finance a wave of migration to destabilize the country. (Soros is Jewish, and the head of the Anti-Defamation League In the three years since Carlson's documentary, the relationship between American and Hungarian conservatives has flourished. Advertisement Roberts, of the Heritage Foundation, Meanwhile, Hungarian officials have attended conservative conferences in the United States, where Orbán was sometimes feted as a celebrity guest. A Heritage spokesperson, Marguerite Bowling, said the cooperation agreement with the Danube Institute 'did not involve any financial transactions' and is no longer active. Roberts said, 'I am proud of the strong relationship between Heritage and the Danube Institute.' Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation in 2023 banning state funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at Florida's public universities. Douglas R. Clifford/Associated Press Before Trump returned to office, some Republican governors implemented policies resembling Orbán's. As Orbán did in Hungary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis installed political allies at the helm of public universities, including the University of Florida system. In 2022, DeSantis signed a law that limited classroom instruction on LGBTQ+ topics that bore similarities to Some of the Trump administration's early moves have resembled Orbán's approach of using muscular state power to achieve conservative ends. Trump, like Orban, has also been criticized for ignoring constraints on presidential power and undermining the rule of law. The Trump administration's use of federal funding as leverage to influence universities is similar to Orbán's approach. Trump's focus on 'wokeness' and transgender issues, as well as his rapprochement with Russia, also echo Orbán's rhetoric. At Mar-a-Lago in December, Advertisement President Trump welcomed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to the White House in 2019. Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press Mike Damiano can be reached at