The Guardian: “Rightwing nationalist politicians around the globe are abandoning the usual diplomatic etiquette of hedging bets before foreign elections and instead are throwing their support firmly behind Trump in November’s US vote in the hope that he can confound the pollsters for a second time and win another four years in power. While surveys suggest that a comfortable majority of the global population disapproves of Trump, insurgent far-right movements are wary of a return to geopolitics as usual if he leaves the White House.”
“‘We are very familiar with the foreign policy of US Democratic administrations, built as it is on moral imperialism,’ [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán, who has positioned himself as Europe’s leading proponent of ‘illiberal democracy’, wrote in a recent essay. ‘We have tasted it – albeit under duress. We didn’t like it and we don’t want a second helping.’ Last week Trump’s challenger, Joe Biden, said ‘all the thugs in the world’ were drawing inspiration from Trump, name-checking the governments in Hungary and Poland and drawing a furious response from Hungarian officials. For Orbán and other nationalist leaders, there may be concrete policy benefits in a second Trump term, but the biggest draw would be the immeasurable psychological benefit of having a politician like Trump occupying the world’s most important office. If Biden wins, it may be taken as a sign that the populist moment is over.”