Orban to Trump: ‘Fingers Crossed’

Former U.S. President Donald Trump, while celebrating the non-endorsements from newspapers such as the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, won the endorsement on Oct. 31 of a Central European strongman.

“Just got off the phone with President @realDonald Trump,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted on X, wishing him luck in next week’s election. “Fingers crossed.”

It’s not surprising that Orban would endorse Trump—they talk frequently and share a similar worldview. Orban came back from his consultations in Russia this spring aiming for a quick end to the war in Ukraine that would leave part of the country in Moscow’s hands; Trump has promised to end the war in “24 hours,” which leaves little doubt about where the new frontiers would be drawn. Trump even gave Orban a shoutout in his September debate with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, calling him a “respected” strongman.

What’s more surprising is that Orban, the leader of a country still nominally in the European Union and NATO, overcame any jealousy of Trump’s own close ties to Putin (the two have reportedly talked many times since Trump left office) to wish him well.

But Orban’s Hungary is a blueprint, if more were needed than Project 2025, for U.S. conservatives, so his backing will at least strike a chord with the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) crowd (there was a CPAC in Hungary this year) and reaffirm the strength of, as Orban himself described it a decade ago, “illiberal democracy.” Orban has demonized immigrants, closed universities, cowed opposition media, taken over the judiciary, and railed against the bureaucrats in Brussels that fund him.

It’s a match made, if not in heaven, then at least in Mar-a-Lago.