BUDnews agenciesEST, Hungary (news agencies) — Hungary’s fiery, right-wing leader says Donald Trump’s victory will help his own battle against immigration and multiculturalism and restore traditional family values.
In Argentina, a president who once bear-hugged Trump at a political conference in Maryland is attacking his critics as rats and parasites, ranting against what he calls a corrupt elite and calling climate change “a socialist lie.”
Trump’s second term could realign U.S. diplomacy away from traditional international alliances and more toward populist, authoritarian politicians, according to both those leaders and outside observers.
Two days before Tuesday’s election, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made a daring prediction.
“Donald Trump will be president again, and that means by the end of the year, pro-peace political forces will be in the majority in the West,” Orbán told state radio.
Orbán has been accused by the European Union of burying Hungary’s democracy by dominating media and building a network of loyal oligarchs. He has worried foreign leaders by drawing closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
What Orbán calls “illiberal democracy” has stigmatized civil-society organizations and cracked down on LGBTQ+ rights. It favors retaining power even if that means contravening traditional Hungarian allies’ interests.
Trump has avoided publicly criticizing Putin and has consistently spoken warmly about him.
“There is clearly that sort of authoritarian-minded chemistry,” between them, said Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.
That chemistry aligns with Trump’s admiration for other authoritarian leaders, some of whom were elected by systems that were once democratic, Gould-Davies said, noting Hungary under Orbán as an example.
Trump has claimed that he will bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine “within 24 hours,” an assertion welcomed by the Kremlin, which currently holds an advantage on the battlefield as well as roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Moscow may hope that Trump will sow dysfunction in NATO given his demands that other members of the alliance meet agreed military spending levels, and his warnings that Russia could “do whatever the hell they want” to those who fail.
Gould-Davies observed before the election that the Kremlin would welcome Trump’s victory because of his apparent desire for the war in Ukraine to end on terms favorable to Russia. Putin and other authoritarian leaders will be encouraged by Trump’s reelection, which will mean “much less emphasis in American foreign policy on the importance and value of human rights,” Gould-Davies said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of his country’s both beloved and polarizing political leaders. Under Modi, Hindu nationalism — once a fringe ideology in India — has become mainstream, and nobody has done more to advance this cause than the 74-year-old leader.
Some critics believe Modi’s politics have divided India, especially along religious lines. He was accused of using hate speech against the country’s minority Muslim community, especially in the last phase of election campaigning this year when he ramped up rhetoric against them.
To his supporters, Modi is a political outsider who broke the country’s history of dynastic politics. His rise has been boosted in part by promises to overhaul India’s economy, but also by Hindu-first politics that have resonated widely in a country where 80% of the population is Hindu.
To his critics, Modi has strained democracy and threatened India’s secular fabric, while his attacks on media and free speech have grown in more than a decade of his rule.
Like Trump, Erdogan projects an image of strength that prioritizes national interests and relies on populist messages that present him as a champion of common people against elites.
The Biden administration has kept Erdogan’s government at arms’ length, but Trump and Erdogan have cultivated a cordial relationship. That’s despite a series of differences between their countries, like when the Trump administration removed Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program in 2019 over Ankara’s purchase of a Russian-made missile defense system.
The president of Argentina has a brash style like Trump, rebukes multilateral institutions like the United Nations and has taken a disdainful approach to diplomacy, snubbing meetings with the leaders of traditional allies like Brazil and Spain.
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