As the latest Conservative Political Action Conference – the premier conference for American conservatives – kicked off in early August, the crowd welcomed a seemingly unlikely guest. Before headliners such as Ted Cruz and Donald Trump took the stage in Dallas, Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán had the podium. Orbán’s invitation to CPAC elicited widespread backlash. The Prime Minister’s 12-year rule has been associated with unfair elections, infringements on civil liberties, and open discrimination against LQBT and Roma communities. Why, then, would the Hungarian despot be welcomed at a conference of America’s most prominent conservatives? Far from unforeseen, Orbán’s CPAC speech was the culmination of a mutual affinity brewing between the Prime Minister and the American right – a relationship that reveals the changing definition of what it means to be a conservative in the United States.

The conference in Dallas wasn’t the first meeting between Orban and powerful American conservatives. The Hungarian leader has invited former Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to conferences on conservative values in his country, and hosted the first-ever CPAC held outside of the United States in Budapest. Orbán has also collaborated with former Trump administration official Steve Bannon on strategy for the 2019 European Parliament Elections, and won a much-coveted invitation to meet with Trump at the White House that same year.

Orban’s popularity among the American right has permeated from the elite into the public. Tucker Carlson, the TV host whose primetime show on Fox News regularly garners more than 3 million viewers per night, routinely lauds the Prime Minister’s accomplishments. Carlson traveled to Hungary last year to interview Orbán and film a sympathetic documentary about the leader. Carlson’s adoring coverage has put the Hungarian leader firmly at the center of the conservative imagination.

Since his return to power in 2010, Orbán’s government has delivered on several high-priority issues for the contemporary American right. Hungary has positioned itself as a bulwark against mass immigration, drawing the ire of European Union officials by refusing to comply with Brussels’ liberal immigration policies. Orbán has presided over the construction of a border wall and has defied an EU court ruling that attempted to strike down Hungary’s policy of deporting migrants to Serbia.  “We actually built that wall,” he proclaimed at his speech in Dallas, to a vigorous round of applause.

Orbán has also positioned himself as Europe’s premier warrior against “wokeness,” passing legislation targeted at progressive universities and LGBT rights. The Prime Minister dismantled gender studies programs at all Hungarian universities, and expelled the prestigious Central European University from the country due to its alleged promotion of “gender ideology.” His government has severely restricted education about gender and sexuality in public schools in a similar fashion to Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. Orbán’s LGBT policies, however, go far beyond that. Same-sex couples are not allowed to marry or adopt children, while transgender people are not legally recognized. Orbán has become popular among American conservatives through a number of achievements that closely mirror their priorities, but the full extent of his policies are much more draconian than what these Americans publicly support.

Orbán’s popularity among conservatives abroad is not sheer coincidence. His global profile is the result of a meticulous strategy to promote and soften his image. Orbán has positioned himself as an international leader and benefactor of conservatism, sponsoring fellowships in Budapest for right-wing intellectuals and funding conservative institutions across the world. Perhaps his most ambitious project on this front is his donation of $1.7 billion of public funds, equivalent to 1% of Hungary’s GDP, to the Mathias Corvinus Collegium: a private university constructing a new campus to attract conservative intellectuals and train a student population of 10,000. According to New York Times journalist Kenneth Vogel, “the effort’s main impact has been to bolster Mr. Orbán’s image as a conservative leader on the world stage – and to counter his reputation as an authoritarian nationalist who is cozying up to Russia and China.” 

Courting the American right is a key diplomatic goal for Orbán. Garnering the support of prominent political figures in the United States boosts Orban legitimacy on the international stage – an important task in the face of increasing pressure from domestic opposition, the European Union, and pro-democracy non-governmental organizations raising concerns about his rule.

Orbán’s successful ploy to appeal to the American right is indicative of the shifting political dynamics among conservatives in the U.S. and within the Republican Party. His political program is focused on forging and maintaining a conservative culture within his nation. In his speech at CPAC, he highlights his cultural commitments, declaring, “politics, my friends, is not enough. This war is a culture war.” He couches all of his legislative accomplishments in cultural terms. Curbing freedom of expression for LGBT people and intellectual freedom for academics are framed as measures to protect traditional Hungarian values against “progressive liberal hegemony.” Hungary’s strict immigration policies are designed not to protect the economic interests of Hungarian citizens, but to defend the nation in “the clash of civilizations.” Even the Hungarian tax regime, which provides tax breaks to mothers with many children, is justified by its effect on Hungarian culture rather than its economic impact.

This strategy of influencing culture through policy in Hungary mirrors the pivot away from economic issues within the Republican party. Formerly a party intensely committed to lowering taxes, spending, regulation, and barriers to trade, the GOP has increasingly eschewed these commitments in favor of waging a full-scale culture war. Since the nomination of Donald Trump, Republicans have become economically ambiguous. Although Republicans cut taxes in 2017, the Trump administration raised tariffs and spending each year in its tenure. Furthermore, the victorious Trump distinguished himself within the 2016 Republican primary field by opposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Since Trump’s election, numerous politicians within the party have touted breaking up or banning corporations viewed as hostile to their interests, such as Missouri Senator Josh Hawley’s “Break Up Big Tech” bill. In the modern GOP, as in Hungary, deficit reduction, deregulation and other tenets of economic conservatism play second fiddle to the battle over cultural issues.

The conservative culture war issues in America are largely similar to the matters Orbán addresses thousands of miles away. “Wokeness” is the preeminent target, and right-wingers from Hungary to the United States view it as a looming threat to society as we know it. Under a massive electronic banner that read “Awake Not Woke,” Orbán described himself as “a leader of a country that is under the siege of progressive liberals” to his CPAC audience. As the European bulwark against this siege, Orbán continued, “we have to be brave enough to address even the most sensitive questions: migration, gender and the clash of civilizations.” These issues typify the political priorities for the new American right. A brutally hard line on immigration propelled Donald Trump to the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and the years since in the U.S. have seen the emergence of an anti-trans moral panic and an increasingly contentious conflict between progressive and traditionalist values on matters such as race and abortion.

Hardly the only social conservative world leader today, what sets Orbán apart is his reputation as a fighter. When, as he views it, the world is under attack by progressive ideology, Orbán believes it is necessary to remove any barrier to protecting society against it. The Prime Minister has no qualms about putting contemporary cultural issues in such apocalyptic terms. “Today’s progressives try to separate western civilization from its Christian roots once again,” Orbán said at the Texas conference. “They are crossing a line that should never be crossed.”

Thus, Orbán proclaimed that he is left with no choice but to fight, saying, “the key to our success story is that when we fight, we give at least 100%… you cannot win half-heartedly. You either give everything you’ve got and win, or play it safe and lose.”

Although the Hungarian leader’s advice sounds cliché, his recommendation has frightening implications in the context of his term in office. Orbán has proudly dubbed his system of government an “illiberal democracy,” under which the will of the majority reigns supreme over minority protections and liberal rights. While thoroughly illiberal, Orbán’s Hungary may be losing its democracy. Through extreme gerrymandering, election procedures that favor the Orbán-supporting Hungarian diaspora, and nonsensical electoral mechanics, Orbán’s Fidesz party has been able to win a supermajority of seats with about half of the vote. This disproportionality was most severe in the 2014 and 2018 elections, where Fidesz retained its supermajority with only 44 and 47 percent of the popular vote, respectively. 

Parallels abound between the unrepresentative electoral institutions in Hungary and Republican-controlled states in the U.S.. The antidemocratic streak of the American right has been vocalized and emboldened by Trump’s election denialism, but has been silently supported for decades. GOP legislatures have gerrymandered their states to devastating effect, creating minority rule in numerous states and occasionally nationwide. Systemic voter suppression efforts in red states, meanwhile, mirror Orbán’s self-serving manipulation of the franchise. Further, American institutions like the Electoral College and Senate illogically empower a rump conservative minority, as does the election system in Hungary. On both sides of the Atlantic, these antidemocratic practices are easily justified. With a progressive left ready to attack, conservatives must use any and all leverage to keep the threat at bay. Thus, the emerging affinity for Victor Orbán on the American right is not in spite of his illiberal and authoritarian rule, but because of it.