BUDAPEST, Hungary, Feb 16, (AP): Hours before President Donald Trump was sworn in to begin his second term, promising a "golden age” for America, the leader of a Central European country was describing the years ahead in strikingly similar terms. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Trump's return would usher in Hungary's own "golden age” and mark the "collapse” of liberal democracy.

The messaging overlap was no surprise. Orbán's strongman style has long served as an inspiration for U.S. conservatives, who have looked at Hungary as a possible model for a right-wing America with less immigration, fewer regulations and the removal of democratic constraints they see as unwieldy or inconvenient.

Orbán has formed a close bond with Trump and has made multiple visits to the president’s Florida resort. This week, the prime minister praised Trump's unilateral outreach to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. During one of last year’s US presidential debates, Trump praised Orbán as "a strong man. He’s a tough person.”

Now, with Trump back in office since Jan. 20, he is testing the limits of presidential power in a way that is drawing comparisons to the anti-democratic methods employed by Orbán and other autocrats. Orbán used state power to crush rivals, remake the judiciary and game elections to make it much harder to oust his party. He has cracked down on immigration, the media and civic organizations.

Although the two men and political systems are different, there are striking parallels between what Orbán has achieved in Hungary and Trump’s agenda and approach for his second term. After becoming prime minister in 1998, Orbán suffered an unexpected electoral defeat four years later. He then swore he "would never lose again” and began planning the political transformation of Hungary, said Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton professor who worked at Hungary’s Constitutional Court in the 1990s.

While he was out of power, Orbán and his allies created a legal framework to consolidate authority. It was swiftly implemented after Orbán’s Fidesz party swept to victory with a two-thirds majority in 2010. "It wasn’t called Project 2025,” Scheppele added, referring to the controversial conservative blueprint for Trump's second term that has been reflected in many of the president's early actions. "It might have been called Project 2010.”

The European Parliament has declared Orban's Hungary an "electoral autocracy.” Upon returning to office with a Republican majority in Congress, Trump issued a blizzard of executive orders seeking to expand the power of the presidency and test the country's system of checks and balances. He has continued to make changes to the government without consulting Congress.