David Pressman, former US ambassador to Hungary, raises an alarm, pointing out that the forceful policies adopted by the Trump administration at all levels and their acceptance strikingly resemble what happened in Hungary under Viktor Orban’s regime.
As the most recent US ambassador to Hungary under Viktor Orban’s leadership, David Pressman is often asked if the tactics and policies of the Trump administration seem familiar to him. „The short answer is yes. But the more important – and disturbing – question is this: Do Americans also seem familiar with and react in the same way?” writes the American diplomat in an opinion article published on Wednesday by New York Times.
After years of watching Hungary suffocate under the pressure of collapsing democracy, Pressman has come to understand that the real danger of a strongman does not lie in his tactics but in how others, especially those in power, justify their acceptance.
For example, the judicial system. In October 2022, Pressman met with the leaders of Hungary's only independent judicial body to discuss their work. Months later, their faces and that of the US ambassador appeared in newspapers, labeled as traitors and foreign agents simply for expressing concerns about the rule of law in Hungary. What was the reaction of other powerful judges? Silence.
Another example: since Viktor Orban became prime minister in 2010, the state has awarded billions in public contracts to his son-in-law and childhood friend, a former plumber named Lorinc Meszaros. What did Hungarian business leaders say? Nothing.
The mother of democracy has the same disease as young democracies
Last year, when Orban's associates allegedly told a multinational retailer to give a share of his business to the prime minister's family, did other multinational companies intervene? They did not.
Hungarians with little power or no privileges to lose protested occasionally. But those in power remained consistently silent.
American officials and academics who, like Pressman, lived in Hungary during this period often told themselves, to explain this submission, that docility is rooted in Hungary's oppressive communist past, that this country's democracy was simply too young to withstand a strongman.
Then Pressman returned to the United States, and what he saw in recent months at home revealed that such theories are mere illusions. And in America, the powerful respond to authoritarian advances just as their Hungarian counterparts did - not with defiance, but with capitulation, convinced they can maintain their independence and stay aside.
The major corporations whose logos were once affixed to the floats at the Pride march parading down Fifth Avenue in New York now choose to stay on the sidelines. Institutions and professions that have long acted as bastions of critical inquiry, civil dissent, and governmental accountability have fallen silent.
The illusion of understanding the strongman
Many law firms have opted to become tools of a strongman rather than guardians of the rule of law.
Former self-proclaimed defenders of American democracy (back when it cost nothing to support democratic principles), including some who served in Democratic administrations, remain partners within captured institutions, earning millions while evading their moral and civic responsibility to take a stand.
They cling to the illusion that they can maintain their independence and integrity while striking deals with a strongman, just as Hungary's elite believed they could emerge unscathed, notes the former ambassador.
Orban often describes Hungarians as possessing a unique intellect and cunning that allow them to resist longer than their adversaries. It's a self-congratulatory myth and a powerful self-deception tool. Believing you can outfox a fox is a way to become its prey. And the American elites, confident in their intelligence, have welcomed a fox into their henhouse with open arms, writes Pressman.
He recalls that during his stay in Hungary, he saw Hungarian mayors telling themselves they were pursuing a clever strategy to appease Orban, even as he effectively deprived them of income and authority.
Investors and directors have bought into this narrative, even as their businesses and entire sectors fell victim to economic policies designed to enrich Orban's family and friends.
Hungarian judges believed in it, even as Orban's machinery slowly swallowed their profession. Some saw capitulation in simple terms: it was the only way to maintain access to resources and keep their employees who worked for them. "We'll get over this in the end," they surely thought, "but first we have to move forward."
So, they all struck deals orchestrated by Orban: they made peace with the strongman, in exchange for subjugation and humiliation. Acceptance led them astray.
Hungary's valuable lesson and a direct message
Those best positioned to uphold democratic norms have chosen the comfort of an illusion over the courage of action. They have been and remain invisible by their own will — and this choice has disfigured them and, ultimately, their country.
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Hungary's lesson is this: we cannot claim to care about democracy only when it costs us nothing.
President Trump, like Viktor Orban, undoubtedly believes that everyone can be bought. American elites agree with him. "There's a Hungarian expression I often hear: 'Van az a penz' ('There is always a price')," Pressman recalls.
Last month, young Hungarians participated in the "Pride" march in Budapest — despite Orban's ban. As usual, Hungarians with power and privileges largely stayed away.
In February, Orban declared that he banned the Pride march because the US ambassador had left Budapest, so "the event is no longer under international protection and will not take place."
"Although I appreciate the indirect recognition of American leadership in promoting human rights, the march in Budapest was never led by me. It was never under international protection. It has always been and was again last month a march of brave young Hungarian homosexuals who put their lives, future, and country at stake.
Hungarian elites, like many corporate logos that once adorned floats on Fifth Avenue, were nowhere to be found," specifies the former US ambassador to Budapest.
He concludes with a message to the administrators of the great cultural and commercial institutions of the American nation: "Do not deceive yourselves. The illusion that you are smarter than the strongman, that you will outsmart him with silent intelligence, is just that - an illusion. Now, more than ever, your principled leadership matters. Look at those kids on the streets of Budapest last month — and learn from them."
T.D.