Apparently, Hungary’s Autocrat Leader Got Trump Obsessed with Ukraine
As the impeachment inquiry proceeds in Congress, Donald Trump has been trying to spin his quid pro quo with the Ukrainian president in the best possible light. At the heart of the inquiry is whether Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to compel President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the business dealings of former vice president Joe Biden's son Hunter. In an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity on Monday night, Trump asserted that Ukraine is struggling with endemic corruption, and as the U.S. president he has "an obligation to investigate corruption."
But where exactly did Trump develop this fixation on Ukraine specifically? We know his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had a hand in the matter, in particular communicating with Ukrainian officials outside of normal diplomatic channels. But Giuliani wasn't alone in pushing Trump on Ukraine. Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, who met with Trump days before his call with Zelensky, reportedly convinced Trump that Ukraine is mired in corruption, pushing Trump to see the country more as an adversary than an ally.
That's according to State Department official George Kent, who spoke to Congress as part of the impeachment inquiry, as reported by the Associated Press. Kent's testimony was soon backed up by The New York Times early on Tuesday. According to the Times:
Echoing Mr. Putin’s view, Mr. Orbán has publicly accused Ukraine of oppressing its Hungarian minority and has cast his eye on a section of Ukraine with a heavy Hungarian population. His government has accused Ukraine of being “semi-fascist” and sought to block important meetings for Ukraine with the European Union and NATO. Ten days after his meeting with Mr. Orbán, Mr. Trump met on May 23 with several of his top advisers returning from the inauguration of Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The advisers, including Rick Perry, the energy secretary; Kurt D. Volker, then the special envoy for Ukraine; and Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, reassured Mr. Trump that Mr. Zelensky was a reformer who deserved American support. But Mr. Trump expressed deep doubt, saying that Ukrainians were “terrible people” who “tried to take me down” during the 2016 presidential election.
Orbán, widely viewed as an anti-democratic leader, rose to power by running vehemently anti-immigrant campaigns, and as prime minister he's promoted the white nationalist "great replacement" theory. The New Yorker summed up a report on the steady erosion of democratic norms under Orbán: "Constitutional amendments were passed after little consultation with groups outside the government; the court system had been reorganized and its oversight body placed under the control of the Hungarian parliament; the European anti-fraud office had found 'possible fraud and corruption' in public-investment projects; and the European Commission had repeatedly sued Hungary for its treatment of migrants."
Officials told The Washington Post that Trump is more susceptible to pressure from foreign leaders now that former defense secretary Jim Mattis and former White House chief of staff John Kelly have stepped down. Current officials stressed that Trump decided on his own to focus specifically on Hunter Biden's role with a Ukrainian gas company. One noted that the president's preoccupation with Ukraine and possible corruption there are "an example of the president himself under malign influence—being steered by it."
Trump seems quite smitten with Orbán, as he is with other autocrats across the globe. David Cornstein, Trump's ambassador to Hungary, told The Atlantic in a recent interview, "I can tell you, knowing the president for a good 25 or 30 years, that he would love to have the situation that Viktor Orbán has, but he doesn’t."
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Originally Appeared on GQ
