BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance said from Hungary's capital on Tuesday that he was “here to help” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán 's reelection bid, the clearest sign yet that President Donald Trump's administration is going all-in for an Orbán victory when Hungarians go to the polls on Sunday.
Vance's two-day visit to Budapest is a bid to turn the tide in Orbán's election campaign where the long-serving leader, a close Trump ally, is trailing in the polls.
Orbán is running for his fifth-straight term as prime minister. He and his nationalist-populist Fidesz party are facing their toughest race in two decades against a center-right challenger, the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar, that could bring an end to Orbán’s 16 years in power.
The prime minister has bristled at the slightest mention of the Hungarian election by any of his partners in the European Union, decrying any expressions of support for his opponent as a grave breach of Hungary’s sovereignty and meddling in the election.
Yet speaking at a joint news conference with Orbán at his headquarters in Budapest's Carmelite Monastery, Vance campaigned openly for the prime minister, saying he wanted to “help as much as I possibly can” ahead of the April 12 vote.
Vance was scheduled to appear later on Tuesday at an election rally for Orbán dubbed a “Day of Friendship” event — an unusual step from a foreign leader and a break with the practice of most politicians who avoid taking an active role in the political campaigns of other countries.
Despite his clear endorsement of Orbán, Vance lashed out at the EU for what he said was “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I’ve ever seen or ever even read about.”
“I won’t tell the people of Hungary how to vote. I would encourage the bureaucrats in Brussels to do the exact same thing,” he said, adding that he was confident Orbán would win the election.
Long accused by critics of taking over Hungary’s institutions, clamping down on press freedom and overseeing entrenched political corruption — charges he denies — Orbán has become an icon in the global far-right movement.
Trump has repeatedly endorsed Orbán’s candidacy for reelection, and many in the Make America Great Again movement approve of the Hungarian leader's opposition to immigration, curtailing of LGBTQ+ rights, and capture of the media and academia.
But with most independent polls showing a double-digit deficit for Fidesz among decided voters ahead of the April 12 vote, Orbán has sought to boost his profile by appearing publicly with his international admirers.
Hungary, which has broken with most European Union countries by refusing to assist Ukraine with financial assistance or weapons to ward off Russia's full-scale invasion, has remained firmly committed to purchasing Russian energy despite EU efforts to wean off such supplies.
In November, Hungary received an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil and gas after a White House meeting between Orbán and Trump.
Yet on Tuesday, Vance seemed to contradict U.S. efforts to push its allies to break with Russian energy, excoriating other EU countries for moving to cease their imports of Russian fossil fuels in response to the war.
“It is funny to watch prime ministers and leaders in some of the Western European capitals talk about the energy crisis when frankly they should have been following the policies of Viktor Orbán,” he said.
Vance's visit wasn't the first gesture of support for Orbán's reelection.
In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Budapest where he enthusiastically praised Orbán and the “person-to-person connection” he’d established with the president, telling Orbán that Trump was ”deeply committed to your success, because your success is our success.”
Late last month, Orbán hosted dozens of allies from around Europe and beyond at the Hungarian iteration of the Conservative Political Action Conference, and at a meeting of the far-right Patriots for Europe party family, the third-largest group in the European Parliament.
Trump sent a video message to CPAC Hungary, saying Orbán had his “complete and total endorsement” and was a “fantastic guy.”
The Trump administration's embrace of Orbán reflects its affinity for European far-right parties broadly, and the admiration, from Spain to France to Germany and the Netherlands, has been mutual.
Still, Trump’s recent approach to foreign affairs has reverberated in Europe, with his actions over Greenland, Venezuela and Iran straining those relationships.
Orbán, however, has remained deferential, and has echoed Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election. In comments to state radio just before Trump began his second term, Orbán said Democrats “took the presidency away from Donald Trump through fraud.”
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