We know that U.S. President Donald Trump loves strongmen. He was famously soft on Vladimir Putin¡¯s Russia; he welcomed Hungary¡¯s xenophobic Viktor Orban to Washington by saying he had done ¡°the right thing¡± by restricting immigration; and he said he got along better with world leaders ¡°the tougher and meaner they are,¡± singling out Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the toughest and meanest.
And the strongmen loved him back. Orban wrote an op-ed during the election campaign hoping Trump would defeat the Democrats, whom he called ¡°moral imperialists.¡± Brazil¡¯s Jair Bolsonaro said he hoped ¡°from the heart¡± that Trump would be re-elected; and Slovenia¡¯s Janez Jansa used various conspiracy theories to justify a call congratulating Trump on winning re-election.
Perhaps it isn¡¯t surprising that populist, right-wing strongmen get along well with each other. But their camaraderie provides yet more evidence of how these supposedly nationalist leaders place their own interests above those of their nations.
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