The right-wing think tank Center for Fundamental Rights held a conference titled ‘Peace Through Strength — The World Aligns with Trump and Hungary’ at the Lónyay–Hatvany Villa in Budapest, Hungary on 28 February. As the name suggests, the event was dedicated to the celebration of the new dominant foreign policy approach, which returned to the White House with President Trump’s victory last November.
Director General of the Center Miklós Szánthó was the first to greet the attendees and the illustrious guests gathered. He started by proclaiming that ‘There is a new world, there is a new situation,’ and that the political GPS is right now telling the driver ‘global reset’ with President Trump back at the helm. US–Hungary relations, meanwhile, are better than they have ever been, according to Mr Szánthó.
The Hungarian leadership backed the POTUS even when many in his own party turned against him, the speaker noted. ‘Strong leaders not only create peace, but also have mutual respect for each other,’ he added, referring to the close relations between Prime Minister Orbán and President Trump. He also welcomed the fact that incumbent Vice President of the United States JD Vance openly stated at the recently held CPAC 2025 in the US that he is a practising Christian, as a sign of the changing times.
Another recent development that Mr Szánthó was pleased with was the freezing of the funding for USAID. As he explained, the woke globalist force is a ‘Hydra with 100 heads’, however, with USAID, ‘at least ten of its heads were chopped off,’ he opined. The Director also stressed that Donald Trump ‘is not a saviour, but a partner in the fight’. So, conservative forces still need to be on the lookout for political developments like the one in Romania, which Mr Szánthó described as ‘something he never could have imagined happening’.
President of the Latino Coalition for Israel Pastor Mario Bramnick spoke next. He too stressed that this is a new era in geopolitics, and said that President Trump’s detractors ‘can fight it, but it is like fighting gravity’. He also believes that President Trump’s victory was beneficial not only for the US, but for nations around the world as well. As he explained, the America First agenda does not mean it’s an ‘America Only’ agenda. So, countries on the American continent can still cooperate with each other on the basis of the shared interests of border security, economic opportunity, and freedom.
He also shared that his parents had fled from communist Cuba to the United States. Under the Obama and the Biden administrations, Pastor Bramnick feared that what they had fled from, namely communism, ‘would be coming to our shores soon’. Now, however, the Pastor is optimistic that the United States’, Hungary’s, and Europe’s best days are still ahead.
Former US Deputy Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Ellie Cohanim; Director of Hungary Helps Péter Kovács; and religious freedom and human rights advocate Paul Murray also gathered for an interesting panel discussion at the conference. Bryan Leib, Senior Fellow for the Center for Fundamental Rights and a contender to be the next US Ambassador to Hungary served as the moderator.
Mr Leib asked Mr Murray why he believes religious freedom is under attack around the world. Mr Murray replied: ‘God has been pushed out of the discussion of human rights,’ and lamented the fact that governments and even school administration are encroaching on people’s religious rights in many places.
Ms Cohanim recalled that she was in Budapest with Mr Leib when the 7 October attacks happened in 2023, and expressed her gratitude to the Hungarian people for the support they gave them then. Now, ‘we have witnessed Hamas commit unimaginable war crimes and atrocities for 16 months,’ as she put it, many of which are captured by Hamas themselves on camera or by CCTV. She also talked about what she called ‘the red-green alliance’, that is, the ideological camaraderie between progressive, left-wing activists and Islamists. As a result, there has been a 400 per cent increase in the US in antisemitic incidents, the speaker pointed out. Ms Cohanim also noted that antisemitic incidents are on the rise in many places in Europe as well, but not in Hungary; and that she believes that some of the pro-Palestine protests in the wake of the 7 October attacks may have been funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Mr Kovács brought attention to the fact that 70 Christians had been just executed for their faith in the Congo, as a reminder that the persecution of Christians is still a very real problem in many places around the world. In fact, according to his numbers, 380 million Christians are facing religious persecution or discrimination in the world right now, and that number is increasing every year. However, this fact goes against the doctrines of the woke ideology, which paints Christians as oppressors.
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