By Cristian Preda, University of Bucharest.

This article was first published in the review Comunitatea liberală 1848 on the 4th of March 2025. Link to the original publication, in romanian: Trei trumpiști români sau poate trei și jumătate – Comunitatea Liberala.

We don’t know if there are, in fact, any Romanian Sorosists, but it’s certain that we have, among us, a few Trumpsters. Indeed, to my knowledge, there has not been a single one of our fellow countrymen who has claimed to be a George Soros. We have, instead, several political figures who claim to be claiming to be the American president. I sketch below some portraits that are most relevant to the political situation we find ourselves in.

The oldest Romanian-speaking Trumpist is undoubtedly Mihail Neamțu. He dedicated a book of more than 300 pages to the leader in the White House, during his first term in office. It’s hard to summarize the portrait painted by the younger admirer, but basically Neamțu saw the American president as a conservative patriot of the Maniu, de Gaulle, Thatcher, Reagan series – who love « organic communities » in which the individual is not crushed by a « greedy state ».

Such leaders were opposed to Zelea Codreanu or Putin, exalted exalts who confiscate Orthodoxy and use it in « macabre terrorist actions ». Neamțu’s sympathy for his idol went very far: he forgave his « controversial morality, divorces, adventurous life » because even someone as honorable in the Orthodox synaxarium as Stephen the Great was not prevented from marrying the Turks by « intense sexuality ».

Compared to M. Neamțu, our other trumpians are even more contradictory. Călin Georgescu, for example, who was an environmentalist in his youth, joined the Trump sect as a denouncer of George Soros, even though – as a recent Recorder investigation showed – he has for years used funding provided by the American philanthropist’s foundations, as well as USAID. Georgescu is thus mimicking what Orban Viktor Orban, also a Soros grantee in the 1990s but an outspoken opponent of one of the policies supported by foundations built in the post-communist East, namely sexual tolerance.

Georgescu also defends the « traditional family ». Perhaps the plural « traditional families » should be used – for the pro-Russian leader is on his second marriage. Contrary to what Neamțu said 7-8 years ago, Georgescu has made Putin a model of a leader. He is thus trying to sell to our public a Putinized Trump or, if you prefer, a Trumpized Putin, taking advantage of the White House’s change of attitude towards the Kremlin.

The third Trumpist profile – Victor Ponta – is even more opportunistic. He debuted as a social-democratic hopeful some quarter of a century ago. He climbed the PSD hierarchy by becoming prime minister, then the party’s presidential candidate in 2014. At a time when German Christian Democrats who criticized the government in Bucharest were labeled « fascists ». At the same time, he found the Chinese communists to be a common sight. Later, leaders such as the Serb Alexandr Vučić and Turkey’s Recep Erdoğan, to whom he was an adviser, also seemed to him to be like that.

By 2020, Ponta was happy that Trump had lost the election to Biden and explained to Romanian journalists that Biden could become your friend, while the outgoing president was a capricious man who would only solve your problems if you played golf with him. Four years later, the same Ponta seems to have become a Trumpian after a game of golf with the new occupant of the White House. At least that’s what he bragged about, shortly before announcing he was running. We need to get on the history train. And that’s because PDS voters, Ponta argued, need a different offer than Antonescu.

In short: I am a Trumpian and I want social-democrat votes.

Antonescu is a Trumpian too, but only half. Hence the title of this article. Forced by circumstance to talk about US foreign policy, the government candidate for the seat at the Cotroceni said he was not a Trumpist, but that he wished the Republican had won last year. In another context, he recognized Trump as a role model, praising « the energy, determination and sincerity with which he says: the interests of my country surpass all other interests » and adding that it would be good if Romanians also elected such a man. I am not a Trump fan, but I would like to be something like him: that is pretty much his position.

Neamțu, Georgescu, Ponta and Antonescu set the tone for a concert of smaller, less expressive and generally very vulgar voices, which also come across as expressions of the Trumpism imported through « ourselves ».

From the already famous “marș, mă” (Piss off!), patented by a TV moderator – who is not only a moderator – to the attacks by a former Education Minister and the current Prime Minister on the enigmatic Sorosists, public imprecations consume untold energies. It’s a sign of misdirection. Let’s see who will run after all. For, with 11 days to go before the deadline for filing candidacies, we don’t know who will enter the race.

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Cristian Preda is a professor in political science at the University of Bucharest and a former MEP (2009-2019). His research areas are large, from political regimes, to political history, elections and party politics.