MAKES SENSE

Pro-Saudi Lobbyist Hired by Hungary to Make Them Look Nicer

David Reaboi has landed a $35,000 contract to massage the increasingly authoritarian nation’s image in the lead up to the U.S. election.

Right-wing lobbyist David Reaboi—a Saudi regime fan who suggested murdered dissident Jamal Khashoggi was no more a journalist than conspiracy theorist Alex Jones—has been hired by Hungary to improve its image in the U.S. in the lead up to the election. The eastern European nation has become increasingly autocratic under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has stacked courts in his favor, taken control of almost every media outlet, and employed harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric. In a recent town hall, Joe Biden flagged the country’s move to totalitarianism and the risks it poses to NATO. Unsurprisingly, Orban has supported Trump’s re-election.

Reaboi has landed a $35,000 contract with the Hungarian embassy to “generate positive American media coverage of Hungary” and combat negative coverage, according to a foreign agent registration filed with the Justice Department. On Twitter, he said he wasn’t in it for the money. “[A]s a conservative American of Hungarian Jewish descent, I have been supportive of Hungary—especially at a time when they’re under assault from the media and hard-left NGOs.”