Budapest, Hungary
CNN
 — 

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 Orbán and his authoritarian government showed how the small central European country has become an unlikely model…