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EU’s Populist Icon Orban Wins Trump’s Attention in U.S. Reversal
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Updated on
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U.S. moving from isolation to engagement of ‘illiberal’ leader
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Past human rights criticism pushed Orban toward Russia, China
Donald Trump and Viktor Orban
Photographer: Danny Gys/AFP via Getty Images
Viktor Orban, the standard bearer for European populism, has become the latest leader to go from pariah to partner in a U.S. foreign-policy shift under President Donald Trump.
Hungary’s prime minister has vowed to rally right-wing forces in next year’s European Parliament elections and tilt the world’s largest trading bloc toward what he calls “illiberal democracy.” He should be engaged, rather than shunned, as he was under the administration of former President Barack Obama, according to David Cornstein, Trump’s new ambassador to Budapest.
