For 50 years, a far-right movement has directed the Republican Party. For 40 of those years, it essentially pursued Reagan conservatism—free markets with radical reductions of corporate regulation, social programs, and taxes on the rich.

Then, a decade ago, it shifted goals, smitten by Viktor Orban of Hungary and his “electoral autocracy.” This is the model that Trump, the GOP, and their policy chaperone, the Heritage Foundation, are pursuing. As Heritage President Kevin Roberts emphasized in 2022, “Modern Hungary is not just a model for conservative statecraft, but the model.”
Hungary became a relatively strong democracy after the 1989 fall of the Soviet Union. It is a parliamentary system in which members from various parties are elected and then select a Prime Minister. Orban was a moderate leader for a term in the 1990s before his Fidesz Party lost power. When it won again in 2010 and selected Orban, he was ready to move his suddenly ultra-conservative agenda forward aggressively and swiftly.

At the end of 2010, a former Fidesz member, government official, and professor, Andras Bozoki, itemized Orban’s actions before concluding, “I cannot believe my eyes: Is it possible to take the oxygen of democracy away within a few weeks and months?”

Bozoki noted some first-year actions. Orban destroyed civil service and appointed loyalists to many positions; created an anti-terrorist organization to defend him; imposed a flat tax to replace progressive taxes; cut welfare and unemployment benefits; curtailed court powers and appointed loyalist judges; diluted unions; commandeered media, kept opponents from sharing views, and promoted messages of “nationalism, Christian and patriarchal family values… and law and order;” and, gave lucrative government contracts to loyal friends.

He also cultivated populism by targeting LGBTQ folks, immigrants (in 2015, he would begin building a wall along Hungary’s southern border), and Roma people (a poor, long-mistreated minority); and he forced 300 religious organizations to leave Hungary by ending their tax exemptions. Most critically, he began to control elections by gerrymandering and impeding media use by opponents, as he sought to permanently assure election for himself and his party.

Throughout his 16 years in office, he advanced his populist agenda and his attack on checks and balances of democracy—not just the independence of parliament and the judiciary, but the independence of the media, journalists, and universities; the scope of rights and civil liberties; and the strength of democratic norms (policy deliberation and debate, transparency…), while weaponizing his administrative power.

Orban’s regime excited European, would-be, right-wingers, and in 2013, the government-funded think tank Danube Institute was created to reach out to these kinsmen. Then in 2015, Orban and Danube began hiring right-wing American lobbyists to reach out to U.S. conservatives, capturing, for example the attention and endorsement of Tucker Carlson and Fox News.

During Trump 1.0, Orban became a Trump and GOP favorite, and in 2022 delivered a main address at CPAC’s Dallas convention. Most strategically, Danube developed close ties with the Heritage Foundation. After several years, the two began to cosponsor annual Geopolitical Summits for right-wingers globally.

The Project 2025 report by Heritage is filled with proposals that advance electoral autocracy. Though Orban’s claim to helping write the report is likely an exaggeration, his fingerprints are all over the document. And, of course, Trump’s rapid action on the report replicated Orban’s blitz in 2010.

In 2026, Orban’s tenure was threatened by uprisings and dissent. Trump jumped in to help. He and Rubio endorsed Orban, and JD Vance went to Budapest five days before the election to deliver a strong, pro-Orban address. [The speech gives a shocking picture of what Vance and friends value in Orbanism.]

In April, Orban and his Fidesz Party lost. His loss didn’t tarnish the right’s enamor of electoral autocracy, but likely underscored the need to shape stronger electoral controls than Orban’s. Trump’s recent election speech might have been a step in that direction. It might have been prompted by panic—that, after implementing so much of the Orban blueprint and arriving on the doorstep of their grand plan, the American electorate might act as spoiler now and in 2028.

After all, Kevin Roberts had said in Project 2025, “Conservatives have just two years and one shot to get this right…. there is no margin for error. Time is running short. If we fail, the fight for the very idea of America may be lost.”

If the specter of a big failure worries the right, we can expect much mischief from our erratic, impulsive president.

Paul Levy lives in Northampton.