1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

Trump backed Hungary’s prime minister and helped end his 16-year rule, putting far-right leaders on notice: when voters are fed up, they show up. Viktor Orbán’s defeat is a blow to Donald Trump and JD Vance, and to the far right around the world. He was the spiritual godfather to Trump, who seems to have become so toxic that association with him has become a liability. It’s bad news for Trump, but it’s a huge win for democracy. Hungarians delivered a landslide win for the opposition with a staggering 78% voter turnout. The undeniable outcome forced Orbán to do what Trump never could: concede. And it serves as proof of concept for how to defeat far-right nationalist populism: when enough people vote, these strongmen go down. Orbán was sort of the OG of this latest wave of authoritarian leaders. If Putin wrote the original playbook, Orbán adapted it and spread it. He became a template for far-right leaders across Europe, and then Republicans here at home. They all run in the same circles, share tips, rely on each other. Remove him, and it’s like the mean girls no longer have a queen bee to look up to. Trump has been running the Viktor Orbán playbook, especially in his second term: Consolidate and control the media: check. (Someone call Bari Weiss over at CBS, and see if she needs a Gatorade working overtime to turn the network into state news.) Stack the courts with sycophantic judges: check. Overhaul election rules: he’s trying. It’s textbook far-right nationalist populism. This kind of movement is a cancer that can survive culture wars and ad hominem attacks. But “affordability,” or the lack thereof works like chemo. When inflation rises (check), living standards drop (housing, healthcare, education, I could go on), and the diehards start to waver (Tucker Carlson, MTG, I could go on), far-right nationalist populism stops looking so enticing. These movements tend to hit their limits after about a decade. But what happens next depends on whether institutions hold and whether voters show up.