"That's the way countries like Russia, China, North Korea, Iran work."

Don't forget Orban's Hungary. That's the model that Trump and the GOP are following:

American conservatives embrace Hungary's authoritarian leader at Budapest conference

At a conference center plastered with slogans like "Let's drain the swamp," Republican after Republican endorsed harsh immigration policies, crackdowns on LGBTQ rights, and a battle against "woke ideology."

The scene could have been any recent GOP event--except it was taking place roughly 4,000 miles away from the US at the Conservative Political Action Conference's third annual gathering in Hungary.

The visiting GOP dignitaries' praise for Prime Minister Viktor Orbn and his authoritarian government showed how the small central European country has become an unlikely model for a potential Trump second term--despite what international observers have described as an alarming backsliding of democratic rights.

The American right's growing embrace of Orbn builds upon millions of dollars that his government has spent on lobbying in the US, and new connections between Hungarian and American conservative think tanks.