That the return of Donald Trump to the White House would create a catastrophe for the hope that the ongoing American experiment can go successfully forward is a truth with too many components to fully go into — though people of goodwill here and throughout the world will be doing our damnedest to do so from here until Nov. 5.
Rather than flail about in the manner of the pompous and yet embarrassingly hapless candidate himself, it’s best to concentrate on specifics.
In the broad category of how he would handle foreign affairs, given a second chance to do so, there is clearly nothing more dangerous about the prospect of a second Trump presidency than his weird and childlike fascination with dictatorial strongmen at the helm of other nations.
The Kremlin stooge, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is one of Trump’s favorite global politicians, and has twice this year visited the former president at Mar-a-Lago. Trump went out of his way to praise the Budapest baddie during, of all moments, his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention — “tough guy; the press doesn’t like him because he’s tough.”
But it’s not just me or the Kamala Harris campaign who thinks Trump’s attraction to and praise of fascists such as Orbán, czars such as Vladimir Putin and communist dictators such as Kim Jong Un is dangerous to our country. It’s GOP national security leaders who are sounding the alarm.
As Politico reports, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Conservative Partnership Institute, “a nerve center for incubating policies for a second Trump administration,” co-sponsored a discussion about how to bring “peace to Ukraine” featuring Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjarto where pamphlets were distributed “pushing unabashedly pro-Russia talking points.”
Those talking points illustrate how “corrupt authoritarians are accessing and abusing our system to undermine U.S. national security,” Kristofer Harrison, who was a Defense and State Department adviser during the George W. Bush administration, told Politico.
Ian Brzezinski, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy under Bush, said of the pamphlet: “It looks like it was written by the Kremlin.” Orbán is a “tool” of a Russian influence campaign betting on Trump’s election as a way to influence Washington, said Brzezinski.
I have a problem with that. Every American should. Even if you’re thinking of voting for Trump because you imagine he’ll lower your taxes or appoint Supreme Court justices you like, this is precisely the kind of anti-American perversity that should give you pause.
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Because the influence group with the biggest hold on Trump, The Heritage Foundation, has a formal agreement with the Danube Institute, a think tank funded by Orbán’s Fidesz Party.
Fallen in love for whatever reason with the current Kremlin, but still don’t love our wannabe overlords in Beijing?
Then consider this: China was the largest outside investor in Hungary last year. As if it were dealing with some impoverished African or Southeast Asian regime, China pushed through a “belt and road” agreement with Hungary, where it’s building lots of battery factories. Politico found out that Hungary “quietly” borrowed $1 billion from three Chinese banks last spring, “the largest loan Budapest has ever taken out.”
I want the next president of the United States to support Ukraine, not the Russian invasion. I want an America absent of influence from the Kremlin and its allies. You may very well agree with me. If you do, think about that when you vote.
Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.
