Trump to welcome Hungarian PM Viktor Orban
Tomorrow President Trump will receive Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán in the Oval Office.
It's the first visit by a Hungarian prime minister to the White House since 2005. The Obama administration limited diplomatic contacts with Orbán's government over concerns that it was eroding democratic norms.
As president Trump prepares to receive Orbán at the White House, we look at the Hungarian prime minister's so-called "illiberal democracy."
Orbán was once a hero of democracy. As a young anti-Soviet activist, he founded a political movement that helped transition his country out of communism.
In 1998, when he was just 35, he was already prime minister and visiting Bill Clinton's White House.
Four years later, his party lost elections, and he was out of power. When he became prime minister again in 2010, he was a changed man. Political analyst Gabor Gyori noticed ruthlessness.
"Viktor Orbán is famous for his view that politics is war," Gyori noted. "This is destroy or be destroyed."
Under Orbán, Hungary rewrote its constitution to strengthen his control over Parliament. With Parliament, he's weakened the courts. And Orbán supporters have taken control of most of the media.
He told supporters in 2014 that he wants to remake Hungary into what he calls an "ill-liberal democracy."
At: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/12/722647668/trump-to-welcome-hungarian-pm-viktor-orb-n
Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Orbán's visit to the White House tomorrow highlights Trump's policy of supporting hard-right heads of state - such as Brazil's Bolsonaro, Colombia's Duque, and Argentina's Macri - whose administrations have been marked by intolerance and abuses of power.
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Let it all hang out. Invite Putin, Bolsonaro, Duterte, Kim, Orbán, Prince MBS, all the fun folks he especially likes to get down with. 
