Think Tank Chief Reveals What Orban and Trump Have in Common

Viktor Orban and Donald Trump are best connected by their desire for peace and connectivity, and their anti-woke stance, Miklos Szantho, director general of the Center for Fundamental Rights, told a panel discussion at MCC Fest. "We cannot play by the liberals' rules and allow the destruction of conservative values," he stated, adding that if Donald Trump returns to the White House, Hungary-US cooperation will return to its heyday in every dimension.

Miklos Szantho, Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights, speaks at the MCC Fest event in Esztergom (Photo: Istvan Mirko)

It's obvious that a Trump presidency would be much better for Hungary than a Kamala Harris presidency, Miklos Szantho, director general of the Budapest-based Center for Fundamental Rights, told a panel discussion dubbed "November Prediction: What Can We Expect in the US Presidential Race?" held at the MCC Fest in Esztergom, in the north of Hungary. The think tank chief continued by pointing out that a global world order change will soon occur and there are two major threats to the emerging new world order: one is ideological, the other is institutional. The ideological threat is woke, the culture of abolition, war in the name of social justice, and critical race theory.

Woke has become very visible today, just look at the Olympics: men can punish and beat women, and even get medals for it. 

The institutional danger is seen in decoupling and derisking, which threaten Western civilization and stability, Mr. Szantho explained. 

Miklos Szantho (second from left): both Viktor Orban and Donald Trump are calling for peace (Photo: Istvan Mirko)

Connectivity and peace

The globalist proponents of woke have voted for decoupling and derisking, while the sovereignists forces have favored connectivity, Miklos Szantho said. This, he added, was an absurd and inverted situation because it is usually globalists, not sovereignists, who favor connectivity.

The most fundamental element of connectivity is peace, and if there is one thing that links Donald Trump and Viktor Orban, it is their anti-woke stance and the fact that they both want peace and connectivity, instead of decoupling. 

Their thinking is not infected by the woke virus and they are trying to base their policies in reality. 

Woke and sensitization

Accoreding to the think tank chief, the problemof woke, the Ukraine war and connectivity are interlinked. Because of the woke ideology, the majority of liberal decision-makers in the West have become sensitized, so that their decision-making is based on ideology and emotions. If you are used to making decisions on social problems, gender issues, migration, border protection or multiculturalism based on these premises, you won't have the capacity to view and assess a war situation with common sense, and you'll end up adopting the same emotional approach to other political issues. 

If we want to continue to stick to Hungary's grand strategy and live in peace here in Central Europe, Donald Trump, not Kamala Harris, is the guarantee, 

– the director general stated.  

Liberals fear the right-wing network

A new phenomenon in politics is that domestic issues are increasingly becoming foreign policy and international affairs. The right wing should be grateful to liberals that threats to normalcy and common sense have globalized in the past 5-10 years, because that's how they realized that they too need to find international allies. A global network of conservatives - which is a global, yet not a globalist force - is being built worldwide, which is why the liberal media is so frustrated by the friendship between the Hungarian prime minister and Trump," Mr. Szantho said. 

He stressed that if liberals could divide conservative right-wing forces and leaders both in Europe and overseas, it would be much easier for progressives to win in their respective countries. The reason they are trying to drive a wedge between the Polish and Hungarian right along the lines of Russian aggression in Ukraine is so that they can undermine the strong cooperation of the V4 countries, Mr. Szantho explained. 

We should not play by the liberals' rules. What we see is that progressives, liberals and pro-woke forces are very well organized globally, trying to destroy the core values of God, family and country. 

While this may seem like an internal matter, the ideological and institutional threat has the same roots: the progressive, globalist political machine. The world order is in a state of flux. Never before has there been such uncertainty, either globally or in the United States, because of the conflict between different political views," the think tank chief added. 

Vice-presidential candidates matter

Constitutional lawyer Istvan Stumpf, a member of PM Orban's Strategic Advisory Council, says the question in the US election is whether it will be about party politics or the presidential candidates. Vice President Kamala Harris has emerged as a possible Democratic candidate, which no one really expected, because the general consensus was that President Joe Biden would have resigned mid-term, allowing Ms. Harris to become president. This, however, did not happen due to the poor performance of the vice president, the constitutional lawyer recalled.

As it would have been too difficult legally, financially, and politically for the Democrats to find a new presidential candidate, they decided to build up Kamala Harris. Earlier, everyone said that vice presidential candidates were not important, which is not true, because J.D. Vance, the new Republican candidate, could be a potential future presidential candidate. He represents a new generation that can garner much more support than Trump, once Trump finishes his potential second presidential term," Mr. Stumpf argued.

Miklos Szantho added that 

J.D. Vance is a good friend of Hungary, and if Kamala Harris is the woke queen, then Trump's vice presidential candidate is the king of anti-wokeism.

"Hopefully, Trump's victory will end America's 'export of democracy'. This would be crucial for Hungary, because Hungary's grand strategy is rooted in the idea of not being dissolved in any great empire, whether from the East or the West. The Biden administration has tried to export to Hungary a vision of liberal democracy, as embodied by Ambassador David Pressman. This has caused ample political tension between the two countries, but if Trump returns to the White House, the export of democracy will cease, and political cooperation will flourish again, alongside good economic, military, and trade cooperation," the director general said.

Cover photo: Donald Trump's the guarantee of peace (Photo: Istvan Mirko)