Name: How Viktor Orbán Conquered the Heritage Foundation
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How Viktor Orbán Conquered the Heritage Foundation

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During
the Trump era, Orbán’s government ran one of the most prominent lobbying
campaigns in the U.S., almost all of which focused on forging stronger links
between Washington and Budapest. This was to some degree understandable: With Trump
ensconced in the White House, Hungary became America’s preferred partner in
Europe—not least for the authoritarian model Orbán
set for Trump.
(As Trump said of Orbán last week, “There’s nobody
that’s better, smarter, or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic.…
He’s a great leader.”) According to the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents
Registration Act, or FARA, database, Budapest inked deals with eight separate
American law or communications firms during Trump’s presidency—an
unprecedented burst of activity.Not
that all of these lobbying efforts were traditional, or even successful. In one
contract, Budapest signed a firm called Strategic Improvisation, Inc. As part
of the arrangement, the firm’s president, a Twitter reactionary named David Reaboi,
began pumping pro-Orbán content on social
media. While Reaboi made tens of thousands of dollars from working as a foreign
agent, it’s unclear what, if any, impact his tweets actually had. (Reaboi did,
however, produce arguably the most unintentionally
hilarious filing FARA has ever seen, revealing that a tweet in which he said he
supported Hungary and was “not in this for the money” was, in fact, paid for by
Budapest.) But
with Biden’s election, Hungary’s lobbying efforts collapsed. Some of the
contracts ended after only a few months, while others—including the deal with
Reaboi’s firm—were canceled the day before Biden entered the White House. As
of this week, Hungary is one of the few nations without a single active firm
represented in the FARA database.

During
the Trump era, Orbán’s government ran one of the most prominent lobbying
campaigns in the U.S., almost all of which focused on forging stronger links
between Washington and Budapest. This was to some degree understandable: With Trump
ensconced in the White House, Hungary became America’s preferred partner in
Europe—not least for the authoritarian model Orbán
set for Trump.
(As Trump said of Orbán last week, “There’s nobody
that’s better, smarter, or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic.…
He’s a great leader.”) According to the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents...

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Dictators and dirty money at  @hrf  | Author of AMERICAN KLEPTOCRACY (http://bit.ly/AmericanKlepto) | Pre-order FOREIGN AGENTS here: https://bit.ly/foreignagents

Casey Michel

Founded in 1914, The New Republic is a magazine of interpretation and opinion for a rapidly changing world.

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How Viktor Orbán Conquered the Heritage Foundation

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