Five U.S. Republican senators recently came to Hungary on a supposed fact-finding mission. They found the facts they wanted to find, apparently, and the U.S. Embassy in Budapest released this statement:
To be fair, I understand that the Republican senators asked to meet with Hungarian government officials, who declined. It’s hard to blame the Hungarians, given how unremittingly hostile the U.S. has been to the Hungarian government. All of those GOP senators are strong supporters of the American war effort against Russia, via its Ukraine proxy. My guess is that the Hungarian government figured there was no chance at all that these lawmakers would have their mind changed by anything they learned from a meeting—in other words, that their minds were made up before they came to Budapest. Meetings with government officials would have likely been a charade, nothing more.
The American statement is another sign that should Kamala Harris win next month’s election, the Washington establishment is laying the groundwork to punish Hungary for its obstreperous resistance to American wishes on Ukraine, and other matters. Over the past few weeks, several sources, both in and out of the U.S. government, have warned me to prepare, personally, for the worst in the case of a Harris victory. A Harris administration, they say, will make a point of punishing Americans who support the Hungarian government, which is a bone in Washington’s throat.
One of those sources, the prominent conservative political journalist John Fund, made his warnings public at the Danube Institute’s recent geopolitics conference. At the end of his remarks, Fund—who is at times a critic of the Orbán government—told the audience to get ready for an anti-Magyar onslaught from Washington if Harris wins. Fund is well-sourced among leading U.S. politicians. He knows what he’s talking about.
This is appalling, but unfortunately, not a new story. Hungarians know it well by now. What they might not know, and what most Americans certainly do not know, is that Washington’s war on Hungary is simply one front of the U.S. establishment’s war against its own people.
In the U.S. right now, the southern Appalachia region is still reeling from catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Helene. Because the region is mountainous, authorities still don’t know how many people are stranded in what is left of their homes. Reports are coming out of people suffering from no food or drinking water. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is supposed to be coordinating relief efforts, but many reports are emerging indicating that FEMA and other officials are refusing to allow American citizens into the area to deliver food, water, and medicine.
‘Washington’s war on Hungary is simply one front of the U.S. establishment’s war against its own people’
Because of X and other forms of social media, stories are coming out of deep anger and frustration at FEMA for its bureaucratic slowness and inefficiency. It turns out that FEMA does not have the money to do proper relief in part because it spent most of its budget to help huge numbers of illegal migrants that have arrived in the U.S. this year.
Americans are also getting news via social media that the mainstream media will not report. For example, like so many federal agencies, FEMA has conducted staff training in DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). In this clip from an online training session, FEMA discusses the importance of putting special focus on queer people in disaster relief. A participant says,
‘FEMA relief is no longer about getting the greatest good for the greatest amount of people…. It’s about disaster equity.’
‘Equity’ is a buzzword used by progressives to describe their approach to distributing resources and opportunities. ‘Disaster equity’ means that relief must be given according to the racial or sexual identity of the victims, or their status as ‘oppressed’ in some way. Kamala Harris once spoke of the need for disaster equity. In fact, on its website, FEMA says that equity is its most important principle for responding to disasters:
Most of the Helene victims are white. So far, there is no evidence that the government has withheld disaster assistance from them because of race. But with FEMA on record as favoring disaster equity, how can one blame people for wondering? What kind of government bases its response to disasters that affect its people by asking first about the identity of those suffering?
On Sunday, Kamala Harris announced a gift of $157 million in relief funds to the people of Lebanon who are suffering the effects of the war between Hezbollah and Israel. How is it that the federal government can find so much money to send to suffering foreigners, but is running short of money to help its own suffering people in Appalachia?
In February 2023, USAID chief Samantha Power visited Budapest and announced a $20 million gift to NGOs to ‘sustain democracy’ in the region. Similarly, Kamala Harris constantly says that her campaign is about defending ‘our democracy’ from Donald Trump. Savvy conservatives in both Europe and America know that a certain kind of government official defines ‘democracy’ as ‘people voting the way we want them to.’
The USAID money was undoubtedly intended to seed a Color Revolution in Hungary, over the wishes of Hungarians who voted for a Fidesz government. That $20 million could have bought lots of food, water, and blankets for hungry and cold people in Appalachia.
This week, Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest storms of its kind on record, will slam into Florida. The New York Times reports that fewer than ten per cent of the agency’s workers will be available to help Floridians recover. This is not an unforeseeable disaster. Hurricane season lasts from June to November every year. Might it not have been a better idea to hire more frontline disaster workers instead of ideologues to train FEMA staff on how to fight ‘white supremacy’? In an email to employees, FEMA said diversity training is ‘part of our ongoing commitment to instill Equity as a Foundation of Emergency Management.’
Believe it or not, there are still people who cannot understand why so many Americans have lost faith in their government’s competence and integrity.
The Washington establishment—both Democrats and some Republicans—are sure of one thing: Donald Trump is worse than any hurricane. Dick Cheney, the former GOP vice president, announced his support for Harris, saying, ‘In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump.’ Harris welcomed his daughter, former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, at a campaign rally.
It is impossible to overstate the symbolic importance of this. Dick Cheney was, in his time, the most powerful neoconservative leader in Washington. He was perhaps the chief advocate for both the disastrous Iraq War and the failed nation-building mission in Afghanistan. Yet now, the Democrats welcome the support of the warmongering Cheneys. In our time, the Washington establishment has not yet met a war it didn’t love.
Donald Trump has signaled he wants peace between Ukraine and Russia. So has Viktor Orbán. According to the Washington establishment, these men are, therefore, threats to democracy. The same neocons who, in 2003, denounced anti-war Republicans as ‘unpatriotic conservatives’ are now on the side of the pro-war Democratic Party, and against Trump.
Naturally they are also implacably opposed to Orbán’s Hungary. Should Harris win, the Washington establishment—including many Republican lawmakers, like the senators who recently visited Budapest—is prepared to make an example of Hungary, to show any other U.S. allies who dissent from the White House’s policies that there will be a harsh price to pay for it.
‘The U.S. believes it can treat its ally Hungary like a beaten dog and expect it to accept the punishment without response’
And yet, these same people are aggrieved and mystified that Hungary is improving its ties to China. They cannot put two and two together. It makes sense that Washington would worry about the expanded contacts between Hungary and China, but no sense at all that the U.S. believes it can treat its ally Hungary like a beaten dog and expect it to accept the punishment without response.
Under normal conditions, it would be unwise for any foreign leader to place all of his bets on the victory of a particular U.S. presidential candidate, as Orbán has done with the Trump campaign. But we are not in normal times. Orbán correctly understands that Trump, like him, is at war with a transatlantic establishment motivated by a progressive globalist ideology that, in the name of ‘democracy,’ opposes the interests of its own people.
So, when Hungarians see emissaries from the imperial city on the Potomac expressing ‘concerns’ about Hungarian policies, they should know that the U.S. ruling class is also ‘concerned’ about ordinary Americans who don’t shut up and obey Washington diktats. That is cold comfort, but at least we patriotic conservatives, both Hungarian and American, are in the struggle together.
Nevertheless, if Hurricane Kamala strikes Washington in January, we in Hungary will have no place to hide from the wrath of the U.S. establishment seeking a scapegoat for its failure in Ukraine. Pray for a Trump victory, but prepare for the worst.
