If you want to insult Donald Trump, a good way to do it is to compare him to a black man like Pierre Nkurunziza. It’s insulting to Nkurunziza, too, because unlike Trump he didn’t opt out of military service, but fought for years in the Burundian Civil War. All of Nkurunziza’s siblings died in that conflict, and he himself narrowly survived, which he interpreted a sign that he was destined for leadership. On this last score, he shared some of Trump’s hubris about surviving assassination attempts in 2024.

Nkurunziza did emerge as a leader though, and he was elected twice (in 2005 and 2010) as president of Burundi. His second election was marred by a boycott of opposition parties, meaning he ran effectively unopposed, but things really went south when he declared he would run for a third term in 2015. This was not allowed under the Arusha Accords of 2000 that had ended the Burundian Civil War, and there was an uprising in protest. To put down the insurrection, Nkurunziza used violence and persecution to such a degree that he came under investigation from the International Criminal Court. In reaction, he withdrew from the treaty that created the Court. In doing so, Burundi became the first member country to abandon the ICC. The Philippines followed in 2018, and on Thursday, Hungary became the third country to leave.

Hungary said on Thursday that it would pull out of the International Criminal Court, announcing its decision just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived there for a visit despite facing an international arrest warrant.

The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban had made clear that it would ignore its obligations to act on the I.C.C. warrant. Instead of arresting Mr. Netanyahu upon his arrival in Budapest on Thursday morning, Hungary rolled out the red carpet and welcomed him with a military honor band at Buda Castle overlooking the Danube River.

Of course, Netanyahu recently was feted in the United States by Trump, but since the United States never joined the ICC, it is under no legal obligation to arrest the Israeli prime minister. What makes Orban’s decision unique is that unlike Nkurunziza and former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, he is not himself a subject of investigation by the ICC. He seems to be leaving the treaty solely to permit this visit by Netanyahu and to further ingratiate himself with Trump’s fascist regime.

As for Nkurunziza, he was elected to a third term in 2015, but had health issues near the end of his term and declined to run for a fourth. In 2020, as the COVID-19 virus spread globally, he “refused to follow most other African nations in imposing a lockdown and expelled the World Health Organization’s expert team working on coronavirus.” His spokesman tried to reassure his people that COVID-19 would not affect them because “Burundi … has signed a special covenant with God, whether you believe it or not.” Nonetheless, Nkurunziza  died  on June 8, 2020, most likely from complications of COVID.

On Trump’s first day of his second term, he withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization, citing its “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Of course, Trump nearly died himself when he contracted COVID-19 in October 2020. At the time, no vaccine against COVID-19 existed and Trump was promoting quack treatments like Regeneron.

Trump’s disdain for medical science and international organizations like the WHO and ICC are highly reminiscent of Nkuruniziza. Likewise, he and Nkuruniziza shared the belief that narrowly avoiding death was a sign and mandate from God for leadership.

But then there is Trump’s continual assertion that he may seek a third term in office despite the constitutional prohibition against it. There was also a constitutional prohibition against him remaining in office after losing the 2020 election, but that did not prevent him from leading an insurrection against his own country and government. Nothing in his history suggests he won’t attempt to follow Nkurunziza’s example in seeking to stay in office beyond what is legally permissible, nor that he’d shrink from using violence and persecution in pursuit of that goal.

These are the things that will happen if the fascist regime isn’t defeated.