An expert on authoritarianism delivered a brutal warning shot to President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement during a new podcast interview on Tuesday.
Princeton University professor Kim Scheppele, an expert on Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán’s regime, discussed what Orbán’s election loss on Sunday means for Trump and the MAGA movement during a new episode of “All Rise News” with host Adam Klasfeld. Scheppele argued that Orbán had clearly prepared for the loss in ways that Trump and his MAGA allies have not prepared for their eventual ouster.
“Here’s the thing, I’m not sure the Trump people understood,” Scheppele said. “Orbán is incredibly clever, and he’s a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy. So, every time before an election, he would plan to win by rigging the rules, and he would plan to lose by figuring out how his people and his network could still go on being funded even if somebody else controlled the state.”
Orbán was unseated during Hungary’s national election on Sunday, ending his 16 years in power. During that time, Scheppele said Orbán sought to spread his influence to other would-be dictators, like Trump, through firms such as the Danube Institute, which often sponsors conservative events like CPAC.
Scheppele said she sees many similarities between the Trump administration and Orbán’s regime, such as Trump’s attempts to cut the budgets of entities that oppose him and to reshape the civil service with Trump loyalists.
But the preparation that Orbán made for his eventual ouster is what separates the two leaders, Scheppele argued. She noted that Orbán had already created a way for his allies to continue receiving funding by privatizing the defense sector.
Scheppele said it will be hard for incoming Prime Minister Peter Magyar to “claw back” what Orbán has built.
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