Despite Trump’s embrace of Orbán, Senate Republicans sound alarms over Hungary’s democratic backsliding

Washington CNN —

If there is one area where senior Senate Republicans have chosen to break with former President Donald Trump, it is his embrace of Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

While some members of the GOP have followed Trump’s lead, including those who attended the Conservative Political Action Conference’s third annual meeting in Budapest this year, several powerful Republican senators have been quick to denounce Hungary’s actions on the world stage.

Most recently, five of these senators – including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a candidate for GOP leader – visited Hungary last week, with Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas releasing a statement expressing the delegation’s concern with Hungary’s democratic backsliding, as well as its close ties to Russia and China.

“Our delegation and many of our congressional colleagues are increasingly concerned by Hungary’s deepening and expanding relationship with Russia and the continued erosion of its democratic institutions,” Moran said in the statement.

He added, “Hungary also continues to disregard the concerns raised by its allies and partners about deepening its ties with China. It is in our shared interest for our countries to work closely together. We urge Hungary to listen to the concerns of its allies and to act on them.”

Moran and Cornyn were joined by the top Senate Republican appropriator, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, as well as Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and John Boozman of Arkansas.

Orbán has successfully centralized power throughout his 14 years as prime minister, much to the chagrin of his critics and the European Union. In 2022, the European Parliament voted that Hungary can no longer be considered a true democracy, and the chamber has