The Daily Populous Monday September 2nd, 2024 night edition
Authored by rollingstone.com and submitted by rollingstone

Donald Trump praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, but some Republicans have deep concerns about Orbán’s influence over the former president.

“Viktor Orbán… I mean he’s strong. They consider him strong. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing. Runs a strong country,” Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Saturday night.

Trump: Viktor Orbán.. I mean he’s strong. They consider him strong. Runs a strong country pic.twitter.com/rI2nP2Y1RN — Acyn (@Acyn) September 1, 2024

Given their shared ideology, including affinity for Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin and opposition to arming Ukraine, it’s no surprise that Trump is cozying up to Orbán, who currently occupies the rotating role of European Union president. As EU president, Orbán adapted Trump’s campaign phrase, promoting an agenda to “Make Europe Great Again.”

But as Politico reports, some Republicans are worried about Trump and Orbán’s deepening relationship. Orbán has visited Trump twice this year in Florida, and the prime minister has spent billions of dollars funding Hungarian conservative foundations and paying U.S. journalist “influencers,” hoping they will influence policy in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. In 2022, Hungary partnered with the Conservative Partnership Institute and distributed materials with clearly pro-Russian talking points.

“Russia has the will, strength, and patience to continue war,” a document obtained by a participant who shared it with Politico. “U.S aid to Ukraine must be severely constricted and Ukrainian President Zelensky should be encouraged by U.S. leadership to seek armistice and concede Ukraine as a neutral country.”

In July, Orbán bragged that he was involved in writing Trump’s policy proposals.

“They [Orbán allies] say things people want to hear about issues they care about. It’s ‘woke this and woke that,’ and then they pressure them with what they really want,” a source in government told Politico. And what they really want is the end the war in Ukraine with a victory for Putin. The source added that many in GOP foreign-policy circles are worried that Orbán is using the MAGA ethos to achieve pro-Russia goals. Trending Republicans Plot Lawsuits to Overturn a Trump Loss. Harris Plans to Fight Back Trump Praises Authoritarian Viktor Orbán and Even Republicans Are Concerned Matthew Perry, Ketamine, and Me 'Half-Breed' and 'Brown Sugar' Vanished: Why Classic Artists Are Censoring Themselves

Orbán has boasted about his influence on Trump, saying in a speech last month that Hungary has “deep involvement” in the “programme-writing system of President Donald Trump’s team.”

Speaking of Orbán’s influence, Kristofer Harrison, former adviser in the George W. Bush administration, told Politico, “I think of [Orbán] as a super-lobbyist, with the kind of influence that a K Street lobbyist could only dream to have.”

HellishChildren on September 1st, 2024 at 15:23 UTC »

Concerned? Yeah, right. In 2022, CPAC was held outside of the US in Hungary and, later that year, Orban was a guest speaker at the second CPAC in Texas. They love Orban.

> “Viktor Orbán… I mean he’s strong. They consider him strong. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing. Runs a strong country,” Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Saturday night.

Compare that to this:

“He’s the head of a country and I mean he is the strong head,” Trump said to Fox in 2018. “Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”

thieh on September 1st, 2024 at 15:19 UTC »

He praised Kim Jong Un and nobody in his party had a problem back then.

alogbetweentworocks on September 1st, 2024 at 15:12 UTC »

“Dictator on day one.”