Vice President JD Vance traveled to Budapest this week to support the reelection campaign of right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, calling on his citizens to stand with him when they go to the polls on Sunday.
Orbán has been in power for 16 years, and is trailing in his fifth campaign to center-right candidate Péter Magyar. As a close ally of President Donald Trump, there is concern in the Trump administration that Orbán’s loss could signal a failure of their shared right-wing policies.
Vance appeared at a press conference alongside the prime minister, with the events labeled as a “Day of Friendship.”
“I’m here because of the moral cooperation between our two countries,” Vance said on a stage he shared with Orbán. He said the U.S. and Hungary provided a “defense of Western civilization,” that was founded on “Christian civilization and Christian values.”
Vance said the European Union was responsible for “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference,” in reference to Hungary being downgraded in 2022 from a full democracy to an “elective autocracy.” Orbán has been accused of stifling freedom of the press, along with rampant political corruption.
“The bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary. They’ve done it because they hate this guy,” Vance said. “They should’ve been following the policies of Orbán. That leadership can provide a model to the continent.”
In a highly unusual move, Vance also appeared at a rally for the prime minister, where he called for his reelection. “We have got to get Viktor Orbán reelected as prime minister of Hungary, don’t we?” Vance asked the crowd.
Vance also told the crowd to “stand against the bureaucrats in Brussels” and “for Western civilization.”
“Will you stand for freedom, truth, and the God of our fathers? Then, my friends, go to the polls and stand for Viktor Orbán,” Vance said.
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Vance’s efforts met immediate backlash from observers. Magyar said the U.S. was trying to “interfere” with the election.
“This is our country. Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow or Brussels — it is written in Hungary’s streets and squares,” Magyar wrote in a post on X.
Statement on the occasion of the visit of the U.S. Vice President to Budapest:No foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections. This is our country. Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels – it is written in Hungary’s streets and squares.
Five…
— Magyar Péter (Ne féljetek) (@magyarpeterMP) April 7, 2026
Alberto Alemanno, a professor of European Union Law at HEC Paris and a Democracy Fellow at Harvard, said that Vance’s visit may have hurt Orbán due to the so-called “Trump Boomerang Effect.”
“In Hungary, every foreign endorsement from Washington is ammunition for the opposition,” he said in a social media post. “Magyar doesn’t need to campaign against Orbán. Trump is doing it for him.”
The Trump administration has nurtured close ties to Orbán in recent years. The Hungarian prime minister shares many of the same views as Trump, including a hard line on immigration, distrust of the European Union, and a refusal to support Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022.
Bloomberg obtained phone call transcripts between Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin last October that show the extent of the his support for Russia, offering to be a “mouse” to Putin’s “lion” in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.
“In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service,” Orbán told Putin.
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