This soulless 2028 hopeful just signed a deal with the devil

If there was ever any doubt that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is nothing more than Donald Trump’s glorified messenger boy, look no further than his smarmy interaction with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest last Monday.

Rubio hailed a “golden age” of U.S. relations with Hungary, emphasizing Orbán’s strong personal relationship with Trump, and enthusiastically endorsed the autocrat’s bid for a fifth term in an April election.

To earn Rubio’s praise and endorsement, Orbán has systematically dismantled Hungary’s democracy over the 15 years he has wielded power. As far back as 2022, European Union lawmakers declared Hungary “a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy,” its undermining of EU’s democratic values taking Hungary out of the “community of democracies.”

Orbán has eroded Hungary’s pillars of democracy. He has limited the voice of opposition groups, passed anti-immigration laws, suppressed the freedom of the media and educational institutions, manipulated the election system, controlled the legislative branch through his Fidesz Party’s super-majority, and weakened judicial oversight by court packing and forced retirement of senior judges.

Orbán has provided Trump a blueprint for democratic demolition that Trump has followed with alacrity.

Rubio disgraced himself by wrapping America’s arms around the most autocratic leader in the European Union. A political chameleon, Rubio is a poster boy for why millions of Americans view politicians as the lowest of bottom feeders. He sold his soul for political gain and scrapped whatever values he may have had to serve Trump, hoping to position himself as a presidential contender in 2028.

As a Florida senator, Rubio criticized the erosion of democracy in Hungary under Orbán and signed a letter with colleagues that decried the “significantly eroded” state of democracy there. Today, Rubio hails that same Orbán as a great leader worthy of continuing to serve the Hungarian people.

As a senator, Rubio was known as a “Russia hawk” who labeled Vladimir Putin a “gangster,” “thug,” “tyrant,” and “war criminal.” Today, Rubio has refused to put any blame on Putin for invading Ukraine, made nice with Orbán, Putin’s one ally in the EU, and advanced Trump’s efforts to end the Russian-Ukrainian war quickly at great expense to Ukraine and benefit to Putin.

As a senator, Rubio was widely regarded as a staunch defender of democracy at home. Today, Rubio is helping Trump dismantle American democracy while lavishing praise on Hungary’s democratic destroyer who Trump seditiously emulates.

As Secretary of State, Rubio must carry out Trump’s agenda or be fired. However, Rubio had the choice of accepting the appointment, and he knew exactly what he was signing up for: serving at the pleasure of a narcissistic authoritarian bent on taking apart America’s democracy piece by piece and spreading Orbán’s brand of anti-democratic right-wing nationalism.

Of course, Rubio is just a slick extension of Trump, a more moderate-appearing face on Trump’s anti-democratic machinations. However, if it weren’t for Rubio and other unscrupulous lackeys like Kristi Noem, Lee Zeldin, Pam Bondi, Peter Hegseth, and Linda McMahon, Trump couldn’t carry out his multiple-front assault on democracy. If Hitler hadn’t had Goring, Himmler, Goebbels, and Hess, he too would have lacked the obedient functionaries to convert hateful rhetoric into nightmarish reality.

Rather than an anomaly, Rubio is representative of most bend-the-knee Republican politicians today. They are willing to forsake their values to keep their jobs or climb the political food chain like Rubio by prostrating themselves shamelessly before Trump.

By providing absolutely no pushback to Trump demolishing American democracy and promoting authoritarianism abroad, Republican politicians are complicit in supporting and enabling the most anti-democratic administration in US history. They have lost any right to represent the American people or our democratic republic and will be unceremoniously shown the door on Nov. 4.

• Tom Tyner is a freelance editorialist, satirist, political analyst, blogger, author and retired English instructor.