Hungary’s playbook – From Hungary’s failed ‘foreign agent’ style law to U.S. battles over media, courts, and war language, politics is shifting—again.
A warning embedded in Hungary’s recent defeat is now reverberating across U.S. political fights: authoritarian tactics travel, but so can effective resistance.
The parallels are drawn sharply.. Hungary’s Fidesz government. under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. last year tried to push a bill through Parliament that would have enabled authorities to criminalize civil society groups and independent media outlets that accepted foreign funds—an approach modeled on Russian “foreign agent” legislation.. When the bill was moving toward approval. it faced massive public backlash. prompting fears among Hungarians that independent institutions could be swept into a government crackdown.
Behind the scenes, analysts described to the writer said even some of Orbán’s allies hesitated.. The legislation was pulled abruptly days before it was due for final ratification by a legislature controlled by Fidesz. a reversal that the report says became a turning point in public sentiment.. After that moment. more Hungarians began to believe that. despite manipulation of the electoral system and the use of state-run and oligarch-owned media as propaganda tools. Orbán could still be voted out.
That electoral rejection arrived last month in dramatic fashion: Orbán was defeated and his opponents won a parliamentary supermajority.. Still, the argument presented is that the defeated leader’s concept of “illiberal democracy” has not gone away.. The report describes it as a fortress-state model where populist forces wage culture wars. portray political opponents as enemies from within. and operate alongside an environment in which an oligarchy can flout the law—an outlook the piece says continues to resonate with MAGA politics in the United States.
Even as Hungarian voters. amid economic strain and increasing marginalization within the European Union. overwhelmingly rejected Orbán. the report says Trump and allies have been adopting tactics associated with the Hungarian playbook.. Central. it argues. is a strategy of amplifying claims of national security threats and framing “reverse discrimination” to pressure liberal and independent media outlets.
The piece points to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit targeting The New York Times over a hiring decision for a real estate editor position.. It argues the legal challenge assumes the federal government is a more appropriate evaluator of editorial qualifications than senior leaders at a news organization.. The report also describes a broader shift in the EEOC’s posture over the past 18 months. saying the agency has dialed back enforcement of antidiscrimination laws—particularly for LGBTQ protections—and has largely stopped bringing cases that rely on “disparate impact” theories for alleged discrimination against Black and brown Americans based on systemic effects.
In that frame. the report argues the evidentiary bar appears different depending on who is claiming discrimination. with the EEOC allegedly demanding more proof of intentional discrimination when minorities are involved. while applying a lower threshold when the target is “white” workers.. It highlights an argument made earlier in the year by Tanya Goldman. a senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women and Families. who warned that the first year of the Trump administration shows what is at stake when a civil rights enforcement agency is turned toward an anti-worker and anti-civil rights agenda.
The EEOC dispute, the report suggests, is not an isolated example of state pressure on independent media.. It also describes growing Pentagon efforts to limit the independence of journalists covering the U.S.. military, characterizing the push as an anti-democratic attempt to control access and reporting.. It says the momentum was reinforced when a federal appeals court allowed the Pentagon to temporarily reinstate a Pete Hegseth policy that would require journalists to be chaperoned at all times by Pentagon minders while inside the building.
One motive offered in the report is that official messaging about the administration’s Iran policy relies on language that can be difficult to reconcile with the realities being reported by journalists.. The writer argues that careful reporters should be able to spot the contradictions in how government officials describe the conflict.
In this context, the report turns to the administration’s approach to war authorization and terminology.. It says that rather than seeking a congressional vote to continue a conflict. President Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. and other officials are claiming the United States is no longer at war and that “Operation Epic Fury” has been downgraded to “Project Freedom.” The piece describes Rubio’s statement while substituting for press secretary Karoline Leavitt during her maternity leave as a case of public messaging that the writer characterizes as fictive.
Meanwhile. the report says Trump has indicated he may resume bombing of Iran at a more intense level than during Operation Epic Fury. and that Iran “has not yet paid a big enough price” for the last 47 years of theocratic rule.. It argues that changing definitions of war does not change the underlying facts. and that advocates for recognizing the conflict as war can be portrayed as security risks or as anti-American.
In a country with expanding information control pressures. the writer argues. holding power to account depends on a media ecosystem that can still operate independently.. But the report says the environment is worsening: more than 130 newspapers were shuttered between late 2024 and October 2025 alone. according to the State of Local News Project. leaving many communities as news deserts with limited local journalism and growing reliance on large corporate broadcasters or social platforms.
It adds that surviving outlets are increasingly vulnerable to oligarchic, Trump-friendly takeovers, a trend the report links to a broader effort to shape the narrative around national politics and security.
The piece also shifts to the fate of major media institutions. noting that CNN’s founder Ted Turner died at age 87.. The report says it is uncertain how Turner would have viewed a likely takeover of his network by tech billionaire and MAGA supporter David Ellison. but suggests he likely would not have welcomed a turn toward a more submissive media posture.
Finally. despite heavy efforts to build a MAGA-friendly media environment. the report argues that Trump’s approval ratings continue to fall.. It compares the trajectory to Orbán’s declining standing in the final months of his 16-year rule. describing Trump as one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S.. history.. With gas prices rising, the piece suggests it is difficult to see how the administration reverses that trend.. It concludes by framing November as a chance for voters to hold congressional enablers accountable. even if the report’s message is more cautious about whether Trump himself will face a direct consequence.
In the Hungarian case, the writer says, Orbán’s approach was treated as a model for remaking America.. But the report’s central wager is that opponents of the Hungarian-style strategy may instead learn how to remove a “corrupt and tired oligarchy” from power—using the lesson that an aroused. organized public can force elites to retreat.
The report also underscores the stakes for future political contests. warning that a fortress-state vision can gain traction when manipulation. propaganda. and institutional pressure converge.. In that sense. it says. the defeat of Orbán shows that persistence and collective action can matter even against structural advantages—while the U.S.. example serves as a reminder that those tactics can be repackaged and deployed again.
By pointing to courts. regulators. the Pentagon. and the reshaping of media markets. the report argues that the battle over access to information is inseparable from the battle over public policy and war-making language.. If the Hungarians’ experience is a guide. the significance is not only that Orbán lost office. but that the path to his defeat involved public mobilization strong enough to derail legislation and reshape what was politically possible.
The final message returns to the November horizon. It suggests that voters may ultimately decide whether the U.S. adopts the same authoritarian roadmap—or whether opponents of that approach can translate the Hungarian example into a new political opening at home.
Hungary election Trumpism EEOC lawsuit Pentagon journalists media takeovers