The Heritage Foundation is hosting Márton Ugrósdy, the deputy state secretary for Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s political director’s office; Attila Demkó, a leading pro-Orbán academic; and Hungarian embassy staff in Washington on December 11-12.
According to a Republican source, some of the attendees, including Republican members of Congress, have been invited to join closed-door talks [on Tuesday].
At stake: U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s 2022 invasion. Who supports the Russian invasion, opposes U.S. aid? Hungary’s “far-right” prime minister Orbán.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin and his closest ally among European Union leaders, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to bilateral ties amid international tensions over the war in Ukraine,” Reuters reported on October 17.
“Orbán is confident that the Ukraine aid will not pass in Congress. That is why he is trying to block assistance from the EU as well,” an unnamed diplomatic source told The Guardian this weekend.
On Saturday night, Donald Trump spoke at an event co-organized by Hungary and the New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC).
Republican Congressman Paul Gosar told Hungarian media that the Young Republican Club is a powerful example of how young generations can contribute to politics. “It is important to know how young people think, because they are the future,” he said, praising Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his policies in Hungary, noting that there have been recent examples of right-wing turnarounds in other countries, such as Argentina and the Netherlands.
Republican support for Ukraine as it resists Putin’s invasion has declined in direct proportion to its romance with Orbán and his ultra-right policies and rhetoric.
When Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022, aiding Kyiv was a bipartisan project. In May of that year, a $40bn Ukraine aid package sailed through the House with a vote of 368-57, and the Senate with a vote of 86 -11.
But as the war has stretched on, more Republican lawmakers have turned against aid to Ukraine, embracing Donald Trump’s “America first” approach to foreign policy. When the House voted in September on a bill to provide $300m to train and equip Ukrainian fighters, a majority of Republicans – 117 members – opposed it.
Last Wednesday, Senate Republicans blocked an emergency spending bill “to send funding for Ukraine, funding for Israel, humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza, and funding for the Indo-Pacific.”
Orbán’s goal is to make that opposition stick. Democrats hold 51 seats in the Senate but the procedural vote needed 60 supporters. Reminder that emergency spending bills are the result of Republican antipathy towards governing.
Need examples of how the GOP supports Orbán?
December 2022: Hungarian Ambassador Szabolcs Takács accepted an award from the NYYRC on behalf of Orbán.
January 2023: Tucker Carlson ran his Fox News show from Budapest; it was his second broadcast from Hungary.
May 2023: The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) met in Budapest, Hungary.
“If Donald Trump were leading America, no war would be hitting Ukraine and Europe today. Mr. President, come back, make America great again, bring us peace,” Orbán told the CPAC crowd. “All we need to do is to write in large letters and clearly visible on the flag before the elections: no migration, no gender, no war,” Orbán said, outlining priorities that would be familiar to America’s far right.
Takács “specifically” greeted [Rep. Marjaory Taylor] Greene [R-GA] during his speech. That night, Greene said that if she had organized the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, “We would have won. … Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.”
In case you’re wondering, neither the New York Times or the Washington Post has featured this week’s Republican liason with Hungary.
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