At CPAC Hungary’s second day, the organizers had a “surprise message” in store for those in attendance. The surprise guest was none other than former American President, Donald Trump. At a mere 65 seconds,Trump’s message wasn’t much longer than Tucker Carlson’s 40-second address the day before.
In the short video, Trump thanked the Center For Fundamental Rights (Hungary’s Alapjogokért Központ) and the American Conservative Union for “the fight”. He continued by saying that he is very close with Viktor Orbán,
“who is a great leader, a real gentleman, and who recently had a very big election result”.
Trump added that “it was a great honor” for him to endorse the Hungarian Prime Minister, explaining that it is rare that he endorses foreign politicians, but that he made an exception because “he really is a good man and he’s done a fantastic job for his country”.
The former US president also said that “we have to stop a lot of the problems that are going on in the world (including the USA), socialism and even communism, if you look at it really deeply”.
Another American spoke shortly after Trump’s video message, but unlike the former president, conservative influencer and podcast host Candace Owens was in Budapest in person.
Owens is one of the most popular right-wing political influencers in the United States. She rose to prominence and became the darling of the pro-Trump Republicans after repeatedly criticising movements advocating for the rights of women and black people (in spite of being a black woman herself). In the past years she has called Covid-19 a scam, repeatedly criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and even said that white supremacy was not a problem.
This morning in Budapest she spoke against the „so-called feminists”, who – in her opinion – want to „abolish men and manhood”; and the „LGBTQ stuff”, because „these days people can change their gender on a daily basis if they want”. She also mentioned that there are „radical climate activists”, who are „fear mongering” and „teaching kids that the planet will go extinct in ten years”. The common in these threats, according to her, is that „they all attack the family” – Owens concluded in her short speech.
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The translation of this article was made possible by our cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation.