Red "Make America Great Again" caps and other pro-Trump symbols saturated Orbán’s campaign rallies. ... Trump has generally forfeited the United States’ global leadership, except for the variety that operates at the barrel of a gun. But he still fancies himself the boss of an international far-right bloc, and he enjoyed the magnified view of his own power in the mirror that Orbán held up to him. Strategically and stylistically, the two leaders are similar. The prime minister was the first EU head of government to endorse Trump in 2016, and the Republican nominee’s upset victory went on to galvanize populist parties across the world.
Over the next decade, no foreign leader worked harder than Orbán to translate reactionary politics into a cross-border governing program. He turned Hungary into a testing ground for practices that Trump is now implementing in America, including the expansion of executive power and the assault on universities and other elements of civil society. Orbán has nurtured a network of think tanks and other government-backed institutions that both court existing MAGA luminaries and cultivate new ones. He put an ally of Vance, and a votary of so-called post-liberalism, on his payroll in Budapest. In Washington, meanwhile, the second Trump administration brought in young aides with experience at pro-government institutes in Budapest.
... Consider the time and effort that Trump and Vance invested in the election. Trump broadcast multiple endorsements on social media and recorded a video that was played at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Budapest. Before traveling to Islamabad for Saturday’s failed peace talks with Iranian leaders, Vance spent two days in the Hungarian capital campaigning alongside the prime minister, at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. One wondered, as Trump warned of the end of Iranian civilization, whether his vice president might not have better things to do.
Trump treated Orbán’s reelection bid like a domestic political contest, with all the attendant implications for his political capital. “We love Viktor,” the president said last fall, standing before his European counterparts at a Middle East peace summit. “You are fantastic, all right? I know a lot of people don’t agree with me, but I’m the only one that matters.” As the election neared, his endorsements of Orbán were indistinguishable from his interventions in competitive U.S. congressional races, complete with his emphatic capitalization. Orbán, he wrote, would protect “LAW AND ORDER!” Trump’s eldest son removed any remaining doubt about the stakes when he weighed in over the weekend, addressing Hungarian voters on X. “We hope you will vote for my father’s friend and ally,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote. “One leader in Europe has a direct line to the White House, I hope you will support Viktor Orban!”
Vance made the contest even more personal by flying to Budapest to stump for the prime minister. Standing at his side, Vance called the Hungarian leader by his first name and voiced confidence in his victory. At a joint press conference, the vice president predicted, “Viktor Orbán’s gonna win,” and then turned to him and asked, “Viktor, is that right?” Western diplomats in Budapest suggested to me that Vance’s visit may have backfired. They observed that Trump’s war in Iran is unpopular in Europe and that the welcoming of any foreign leader was at odds with Orbán’s argument that he stood for Hungarian sovereignty. ...
Trump didn’t just send individual emissaries to Budapest; he also involved the apparatus of the U.S. State Department in the election. Before Vance’s appearance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to the Hungarian capital in February. ... “Your success is our success,” Rubio told Orbán.
Trump dangled further U.S. assistance at the eleventh hour. Two days before the election, he took to Truth Social to suggest that Orbán’s reelection would enable the furthering of economic ties between the two countries. “My Administration stands ready to use the full Economic Might of the United States to strengthen Hungary’s Economy, as we have done for our Great Allies in the past, if Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian People ever need it,” he wrote. ...
... One bright spot, which he highlighted, was that “the U.S. made clear they are supporting us.” How special to have the backing of “the strongest country on Earth.”
.... Hungary is a small country that ejected its prime minister in large part because of domestic economic conditions. The country’s broader significance lies in the illiberal model it has exported abroad. That model has champions at the height of the U.S. government who appear inclined to intervene, audaciously, in foreign campaigns. Next year, elections will take place in numerous European countries whose populations are each larger than Hungary’s, including France, Italy, Poland, and Spain. One measure of their meaning will be whether MAGA caps appear at the victory parties. (read it all)
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