US Reportedly Pushing a Long Shot to Lead UN

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal typically offers its opinion on news stories. In this case, the board's editorial breaks some news first: Citing sources in three countries, the board reports that the Trump administration has been urging former Hungarian leader Viktor Orban to seek the job of UN secretary-general. "A Trump State Department official concedes that it sounds crazy at first," the editors write, before adding that China and Russia are said to be on board. Backers acknowledge the fear that Orban "would act as an apologist for Vladimir Putin and other dictators," but the US official describes Orban as "the dream MAGA-conservative candidate" because of his stances against mass migration and liberal institutions.

The Journal notes that Orban, who lost in a landslide in April despite the backing of President Trump, would be an ideological outlier in a field stacked with traditional diplomats and bureaucrats—"a general," as one foreign official put it, not a "secretary." Asked about the Journal report on Monday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk laughed it off, notes Politico. "Just a moment ago, he was a candidate for president of the European Commission," said Tusk. "This seems to me just as funny as that first rumor."