When Viktor Orban gave a speech in 2022 at a Conservative Political Action Conference gathering in Budapest, he shared his secret to amassing power with Donald Trump's fan base. 'We must have our own media,' he told his audience. As a Hungarian investigative journalist, I have had a firsthand view of how Orban has built his own media universe while simultaneously placing a stranglehold on the independent press. As I watch from afar what's happening to the free press in the United States during the first weeks of Trump's second presidency'the verbal bullying, the legal harassment, the buckling by media owners in the face of threats'it all looks very familiar. The MAGA authorities have learned Orban's lessons well. I saw the roots of Orban's media strategy when I first met him for an interview, in 2006. He was in the opposition then but had served as prime minister before and was fighting hard to get back in power. When we met in his office in a hulking century-old building that...
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