Editorial written by The Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose illiberal right-wing policies have served as a template for President Donald Trump’s second term, was roundly defeated last Sunday. His electoral loss, after 16 years in power, offers a lesson for those seeking to safeguard the American experiment from the president’s autocratic bent.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from challenger Péter Magyar’s victory is that if the will of the voters is strong enough, even a hollowed-out democracy can still speak for the people. This bodes ill for Republicans in upcoming elections, as the United States is nowhere near the level of institutional degradation achieved by Orbán and his party.
It has not been for lack of trying, though.
Guided by the Project 2025 blueprint — a plan Trump disavowed during his campaign but which he has followed since his return to the White House — the president has attempted to dismantle constitutional checks and balances, undermine elections, and bully and dominate business and civil society.
Trump adviser Steve Bannon once called Orbán “Trump before Trump” and Hungary under his leadership offered a grim preview of what a successfully MAGA-fied America would look like: Government control of universities and the media, courts and federal jobs occupied by loyalists, extreme gerrymandering limiting political opposition, and curbed press freedoms.
But just as Trump and his enablers moved much more swiftly in trying to undercut democratic institutions and weaken the rule of law than their Eastern European counterparts, the cracks in the foundation that ultimately led to Orbán’s overwhelming loss are already visible in Washington.
Magyar and his Tisza party were expected to hold a two-thirds parliamentary majority on the strength of focusing on corruption and a poor economy. While Trump has been busy enriching himself, his family, and his cronies to the tune of billions of dollars, everyday Americans are struggling.
Although the U.S. is not Hungary, Democrats still looking to find a winning message can’t do much better than what Magyar promised in his victory speech, a country “where citizens can count on their government, where everyone is entitled to proper healthcare, a carefree childhood, and a dignified old age.”
Contrast that with a president who claims that citizens of the richest nation in the world who want a better life, better look elsewhere. “It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” Trump said at an April 2 Easter luncheon. “They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection.”
Yes, having a strong military is important, but even more so is the responsible stewardship of America’s armed forces. By some estimates, Trump’s war of choice in Iran costs taxpayers $2 billion a day, with a long term price tag coming in at $1 trillion over the next decade on military-related spending alone. That doesn’t even consider the pain at the pump and the checkout lane as the still unresolved conflict hikes up prices on everything from gas to groceries.
Trump’s blinkered priorities are not limited to the economy.
While the president and his secretary of state watched a mixed martial arts match in Miami Saturday, peace talks with Iran were falling apart. On Sunday, Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV on social media, claiming the U.S.-born pontiff should “stop catering to the radical left” and “get his act together as pope” before posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus healing the sick.
As far as we know, Viktor Orbán never publicly compared himself to Christ, but other parallels with Trump remain strong, including the use of the autocratic playbook, and the graft and incompetence of their administrations.
After Sunday, supporters of democracy can hope the similarities don’t end there.
