US Vice President JD Vance visited Budapest on April 7, met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and publicly backed him ahead of the parliamentary election. According to The Washington Post, Vance said on camera that Donald Trump and he both value Orban’s role and wished him luck in Sunday’s vote.
At a joint press conference, Vance accused the European Union of interfering in Hungary’s campaign. He said Brussels bureaucrats had allegedly tried to damage Hungary’s economy, weaken its energy independence, and raise prices for consumers because they are hostile to Orban.
During the trip, Vance also appeared at Orban’s campaign rally and called Trump from the stage. Over speakerphone, the US president endorsed the Hungarian prime minister and called him a “fantastic worker.” Vance told the audience they should decide their future without outside pressure and added that Orban and Trump had done more than anyone else to help end the war in Ukraine through diplomacy.
Reuters noted that the visit broke with the norm followed by earlier US administrations, which avoided openly campaigning abroad, especially for a government with close ties to the Kremlin. Politico wrote that the White House sees Orban as a key ideological ally in Europe, though pollsters doubt the trip will alter a race in which Orban’s position has weakened.
Peter Magyar, Orban’s main rival, urged Vance not to interfere and said Hungarian history is written not in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels, but in Hungary itself. After initially declining to respond, European Commission representatives said they would convey their concerns to the US through diplomatic channels. In Germany, officials called Vance’s remarks hypocritical, noting that he himself arrived in Hungary only days before the vote.