‘This could be fake news. The website InfoVaticana quotes anonymous sources who, they say, were also at the meeting, and who report that the Holy Father did not make “far-right ideology” a focus of the meeting. One hopes they are correct.’

‘Sooner or later…Orbán will no longer be the Hungarian chieftain…It occurred to me that if the Hungarian people choose to forsake the faith embraced by King Saint Stephen…and instead permit themselves to be dissolved into the post-Christian cultural mongrelization represented by the godless, nationless EU, the tragedy will not be Viktor Orbán’s, but their own.’

‘That night in New York, I too felt the thrill of hope. There in the purity of the snow-frosted park, there was not enough evil in the world to extinguish the good in the hearts of men who love, and who hope in defiance of despair. As the Gospel of John says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”’

‘Life is not easy for many Hungarians, but Hungary has one big thing going for it: a strong sense of itself as a nation and a people. If it is true that hope comes from cultural memory married to the desire to return to what is good, true, and beautiful about the past, then Hungarians have every right, and indeed the responsibility, to be hopeful, even as the chill darkness of forgetfulness and cultural dispossession settles over Western Europe.’

‘Donald Trump’s sweeping election victory will reshape the European power landscape, catapulting Hungary from a state disdained by Washington, whose ambassador routinely and rudely lambasts his host country, into one of America’s most important allies. It is not good for Europe that it exists as a dependency on the American Empire, but that’s simply a fact. Now that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s good friend is about to return to the White House, Hungary gains the most powerful new ally imaginable in its dealings with its EU partners. The days of bullying Hungary are over.’

‘Before I left for America on this trip, I complained to a Magyar friend about how stubborn Hungarians are, and how they refuse to change their ways of doing things, even when there is a plainly better way. “You’re right, we are like that,” she said. “But consider that our hard-headed temperamental conservatism is also the thing that makes us willing to stand up to Brussels and tell them to go to hell.” Touché.’

‘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.’

‘Ukraine is losing this war, indeed has likely lost it, and Washington is looking for a scapegoat for its colossal strategic failure. Viktor Orbán, who was right about this war from the beginning, is that scapegoat. If Harris wins in November, we can expect a narrative coming out of Washington saying that Ukraine and its allies would have prevailed if it had not been for Hungary stabbing Ukraine in the back.’

‘Today, the Hungarian capital is part of the ongoing political discussion at the highest levels of American political life—for better or for worse. Hungary is either a symbol of all that is bad in the Western world—that’s how progressives, liberals, and neoconservatives see it; or it’s a plucky resister to globalism, social liberalism, and mass migration, a laboratory for a new kind of right-of-center policymaking.’

‘It seems to me that Orbán sees his people as having a greater chance of surviving the disintegration of the West by forming ties to China. He might be proven wrong by history. But make no mistake: the dilemma facing Viktor Orbán is a lot like that facing Grand Prince Géza: How to strengthen the position of the small Hungarian nation amid the struggle of powerful states and empires? Géza’s geopolitical decision to baptism his son as a Latin Christian set the course of Hungarian history for a millennium. The stakes may well be as high for Orbán today.’