What do you call a country whose government openly embraces illiberalism and exults in the crisis of democracy, cheers the perceived decline of the United States and the rise of its authoritarian challengers, makes irredentist claims against its neighbors and spreads decay within key institutions of the American-led international order? If you answered "NATO ally,” you are, unfortunately, correct.
Under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hungary is weakening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union from the inside as Russia and China pressure them from the outside; it is setting a terrible precedent as the U.S. reckons with resurgent authoritarianism within a number of its alliances. It may be premature for the U.S. to simply walk away from an ally that more often undercuts than advances American interests. But it’s not too early to start taking steps in that direction.
The latest marker of Hungary’s estrangement came in a speech that Orban recently gave to mark the centennial of the Treaty of Trianon, the post-World War I agreement that established the frontiers of the modern Hungarian state. Orban portrayed Hungarian history as a story of exploitation by rapacious empires, with the "hypocritical American empire” the most recent offender. He touted the achievements of his increasingly authoritarian regime in strengthening and purifying the Hungarian nation. And he described a world in which America is declining, China and Russia are ascending, the EU is dying, and Hungary can look only to itself for salvation.