Krugman notes the unsettling affection that Trump and the creatures around him have for Viktor Orban, Hungary's authoritarian leader. Orban and Putin represent a certain form of autocrat that tends to rely on racial nostalgia to legitimize the destruction of democratic norms. In Orban's case, it was the migrant crisis of a decade ago, where the trauma of the Arab Spring and the civic violence that arose around it spurred a mass exodus of migrants into Europe. In Putin's case, it's nostalgia for the Soviet Union and its ability to dominate the ethnic minorities within its border, minorities that now have their own countries.
In Trump's case, it's nostalgia for an imagined America where white men could dominate everything and "those people" knew their place. There's always fiction in nostalgia, and Trump's version is especially fictitious. Still, the very fact (and it is a fact) that America's president is openly siding with these authoritarian regimes against the democratic regimes of our erstwhile allies is deeply, deeply wrong on a strategic, moral and historical level.
Trump's rolling disaster of a war in Iran has him silent while Russia provides Iran with targeting data to strike American military assets. He has let Russian tankers supply Cuba, because he simply cannot break with Putin, it seems. Trump routinely insults our allies and neighbors, but have you ever heard him insult Putin? Or even Xi? Is this just a deep seated affinity or does Russia, in fact, have the Epstein Goods on Trump?
Hungary will be a clear test of the long term success of Orbanist politics. He has thoroughly corrupted a young democracy, but if they can vote him out, then the odds of success here in America for a November Blue Wave would seem to be higher. Our institutions are older and more decentralized. Ideally, a Democratic House or hopefully a fully Democratic Congress will be able to investigate Trump's ties to autocrats, whether in Moscow, Budapest or Riyadh.
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