While the world was watching Donald Trump threaten to destroy Iran, his Vice President JD Vance was dispatched to Budapest on a rather different mission.
Vance was tasked with throwing his support – and that of the United States President – behind Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister, as he fights for re-election in one of the most watched votes of 2026.
Hungarians go to the polls on Sunday in a high-stakes parliamentary election that could determine not only the future of the country, but that of Europe and the wider world.
Orbán, a right-wing nationalist who has been in power continuously since 2010, has reshaped Hungary into what he describes as an “illiberal democracy”, overhauling its judiciary by packing it with loyalists, asserting party control over much of the media landscape and passing laws to reshape state institutions and election laws in his favour.
He has taken a resolutely anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Ukraine line, continuously obstructing aid for Kyiv in the war, pledging support for Vladimir Putin‘s cause and deepening Hungary’s dependence on Russian energy.
But he is now facing his toughest electoral test in years with the emergence of a former Fidesz party loyalist, Péter Magyar, as a challenger for the top job. Magyar is standing on a platform of anti-corruption and restoring Hungary to a more pro-European orientation.
Opinion polls suggest he has a good chance of unseating Orbán, leading to a fiercely contested election campaign touted as a battle for the nation’s soul.
Orbán with the Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Moscow last November (Photo: Alexander Nemenov/ Reuters)Hungary as a blueprint for Trump’s America
Vance’s appearance indicates that the White House is strongly invested in the outcome of this election.
The Vice President appeared with Orbán at a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday, where he told him: “The President loves you and so do I.”
During a rally in the capital he called Trump and held up the phone to a microphone. Trump’s voice was heard telling the crowd: “I love Hungary and I love Viktor. He is a fantastic man. Remember this: He didn’t allow people to storm and invade and ruin your country like others have. He’s kept your country good.” He added: “I’m a big fan of Viktor, I’m with him all the way, the US is with him all the way.”
Orbán, a darling of the global populist right, is held in high regard by Trump’s Maga movement. His anti-immigration views align with the policy aims of the White House, which has taken an extreme stance against immigrants, deploying agents to the streets of American cities and arresting thousands.
Orbán’s open vision of a white Christian nationalist Hungary also aligns closely with the ideology of many on the American right, and especially those within Trump’s movement.
A man wears a shirt featuring an image of Orbán and US President Donald Trump at the pro-Orbán rally in Budapest on Tuesday (Photo: Peter Kohalmi / AFP via Getty Images)On Tuesday, Vance told Hungarians: “What the United States and Hungary together represent under Viktor’s leadership and under President Trump’s leadership is the defence of western civilisation. The defence of the idea that we are founded on a certain Christian civilisation and Christian values.”
Trump’s second administration has often been noted for its disdain of Europe. Last year Vance lashed out at Europe for its immigration policies, and said the greatest danger facing it was not Russia or China but “the threat from within”.
The US national security strategy portrayed Europe as at risk of “civilisational erasure”. It called for “cultivating resistance” and for the US to bolster the “healthy nations” of central and eastern Europe, which was met with deep unease in many European capitals.
Trump’s administration has openly called for far-right forces to mobilise in Europe and provided its own support for opposition parties, in what many have criticised as open meddling in other countries’ politics.
Orbán’s appeal to the broader populist right internationally has seen him score endorsements from far-right figures in European politics including France’s Marine Le Pen, Italy’s Matteo Salvini and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders.
He has also frequently found himself at loggerheads with the European Union, a hated entity for Trump and his acolytes.
Peter Magyar, leader of the Tisza Party (Photo: Balint Szentgallay/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Why Orbán’s survival is a priority for Trump
For the administration, Orbán’s survival is a strategic priority that provides Maga’s own ideological project with a blueprint and inspiration for a Christian nationalist government. A loss for Orbán would be a huge blow to that project as well as Trump himself at a time when he faces numerous challenges at home.
Trump’s domestic unpopularity continues to snowball following six weeks of war with Iran that have sent global energy prices spiralling.
Defeat for Orbán would also represent a major setback for the White House’s approach towards the continent – as well as demonstrating a waning of the populist sentiment that placed Trump in power.
Angelia Wilson, professor of politics at the University of Manchester, told The i Paper: “Vance’s appearance was important in signalling an ongoing US push against Brussels.
“The US right, particularly the Christian right, have been investing financially and politically in Hungary and in eastern European populist right movements for over 25 years.
“Orbán was one of their early allies, but the real target has always been Brussels.”
But many opinion polls are showing a double-digit lead for Magyar’s party, Tisza, and Vance’s appearance is seen as an attempt by Orbán to shore up support in the final few days of the campaign.
Speaking in Budapest on Tuesday, Vance accused Brussels of “foreign interference” and of attempting to “destroy the economy of Hungary”.
Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, are welcomed by the Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto as they arrive at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (Photo: Jonathan Ernst / AFP via Getty Images)Magyar hit back, accusing the US of meddling in Hungary’s election by sending Vance. “No foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections. This is our country,” Magyar wrote on X, adding that Hungarian history was “not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels”.
The election has been dogged by allegations of election interference – but by Moscow, not Brussels.
Wilson added: “Ironically, Vance may have more impact on a campaign trail in Hungary than he will have in the mid-terms in the US, where he is unpopular and overshadowed by Trump.”
Trump in trouble
If Orbán were defeated, the US President would lose a vital European ally of the Maga movement at a time when the populist right is looking to make gains across the world.
However, the backing of Trump and Vance might not necessarily help the Hungarian Prime Minister in the way he hopes.
Trump’s unpopularity was cited as a factor in the defeat of right-wing parties in Canada and Australia last year, and Hungary could represent another key test for his international influence.
The unpopularity of Trump’s Iran war has left even far-right parties in Europe scrambling to distance themselves from it.
However, Wilson cautioned that Maga will still seek to exert its influence across Europe regardless of how the Hungarian election unfolds.
She added: “A defeat for Orbán would be a knock for the populist right in Europe, but with Trump in place in the US they will continue to have actual and discursive power to influence the political agenda in Europe.”
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