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🆘 DEMOCRACY DISTRESS SIGNAL

HUNGARY JUST BANNED LGBTQ+ LIFE. TRUMP IS APPLAUDING.

The dictator that Donald Trump has endlessly praised—calling him a “Smart Prime Minister,” a “great man,” a “great leader,” “respected,” someone who’s “done a wonderful job”—has just turned Hungary into a living blueprint for authoritarian repression.

Viktor Orbán’s regime has passed a constitutional amendment that bans all LGBTQ+ public events. Pride? Outlawed. LGBTQ+ gatherings? Criminalized. Peaceful assembly? Eliminated. Facial recognition surveillance will now be used to track and punish attendees. The constitution has been rewritten to recognize only two sexes, erasing the legal existence of trans and intersex people. And citizens deemed a “threat” to national security—by whatever standard the state decides—can be stripped of citizenship, with no trial, no defense.

This isn’t policy. It’s persecution. A coordinated, calculated assault on human rights: freedom of expression, identity, protest, and personhood.

And Trump is cheering it on.

Orbán publicly credited Trump’s 2025 return to power for giving him the green light to take this action. “We have big plans for the future,” he declared, calling it “a much needed victory for the world.” His party confirmed those plans include deeper coordination with Trump on “Christian values.” Orbán even said: “We have entered President Donald Trump’s team.”

This isn’t just admiration—it’s collusion. Trump didn’t just applaud the crackdown. He empowered it.

And now he’s importing it. In state after state, Trump’s allies are banning LGBTQ+ books, targeting trans children, criminalizing drag, censoring teachers, and using “woke” as a catch-all slur for anyone who believes in dignity, equality, or truth. They’re repackaging Orbán’s tactics and calling it “parental rights” or “child protection.” But the goal is clear: control, fear, and erasure.

Hungary is not some distant outlier—it is the test run. A case study in how democracy dies not with a bang, but with applause from Trump.

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