Why Trump’s Role Model Is Hungary’s Viktor Orban

Trump is not using such measures to try to make America great; like his role model, he is trying to manufacture an immigration-related crisis to help him establish an autocracy.

And although Trump's efforts in this regard are less far advanced than Orban's nine-year-old project in Hungary, he has made more progress than most Americans realise.

Orban, like Trump, has made demonisation of immigrants a defining feature of his administration.

Both leaders pursue racist policies of turning back immigrants from the south (mostly Central American asylum seekers trying to enter the United States, and Syrians coming to Hungary).

Both justify their policies in part by claiming — with little or no evidence — that immigrants fleeing extreme violence and poverty are engaged in terrorism.

Hungary has not experienced a terrorist incident. But Orban nonetheless managed to secure a terrorism conviction of an exhausted and frustrated Syrian asylum seeker (later released) for throwing stones when the government built a razor-wire fence on Hungary's southern border to block migrants making the arduous journey across the Balkans.

Similarly, Trump has sought to deflect attention from low crime rates in America's immigrant communities by highlighting violent incidents among the much larger naturalised immigrant population. In particular, Trump repeatedly cited three brutal murders in California to bolster support for his harsh immigration policies.

Trump speaks to the media as he meets with the Orban. Their meeting marked the first time a US president had granted Orban a formal visit in more than 20 years. EPA-EFE/Chris Kleponis

Walls and fences

The Hungarian government built its fence on the country's border with Serbia in 2015. Trump...