Vice President JD Vance touched down in Hungary on Tuesday for a two-day visit in a last-ditch effort to boost Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s reelection campaign.
Hungary takes to the polls on Sunday, April 12 for a parliamentary election. Orbán’s national conservative Fidesz Party is trailing 10 percentage points behind the Tisza Party, according to polling by Politico. A loss next Sunday would end the leader’s 16-year rule of the nation.
But why, among the heap of domestic and geopolitical issues on the administration’s plate, is it focusing on the Hungarian election?
The Trump administration sees Hungary, and Orbán in particular, as critical to its strategy in Europe. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Orbán have a long relationship, with Orbán being the first and only leader in the European Union to offer his congratulations for the president’s 2016 win. The prime minister supported Trump again in his 2024 run. But more than electoral support, the leaders share rightwing ideology.
Orbán and Trump see eye to eye on a host of issues – from the war in Ukraine and migration to gender ideology and global security – an overlap that Orbán and Vance reaffirmed at a press conference on Tuesday, with Vance saying the two countries are fighting for the “defense of Western civilization.”
Orbán, meanwhile, also has support from Russian President Vladimir Putin who sees the Hungarian leader as key to undermining the European Union. Orbán has long been hostile to Ukraine and recently blocked a multibillion-dollar EU loan to the country that would’ve aided its fight against Russia, a position that the Trump administration has praised.
“Your leadership has been a far, far more important and constructive partner for peace than almost anyone, anywhere else in the world,” Vance told Orbán today.
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While the relationships between the U.S. and its other European allies are strained – particularly following the war with Iran, the visit illustrates the bond with Hungary remains strong.
“I just want to tell you, I’m a big fan of Viktor, I’m with him all the way, and the United States is with him all the way,” Trump said over speakerphone at a Vance-Orbán rally today in Budapest.