Hungary

Viktor Orbán and His American Apologists All Deserve To Lose

J.D. Vance in Budapest: 'We have got to get Viktor Orbán reelected as Prime Minister of Hungary, don't we?'

Matt Welch | 4.8.2026 10:30 AM

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(Xinhua/Sipa USA/Newscom)

Five days before an election that threatens to unseat the longest-serving and most corrupt government within the European Union, Vice President J.D. Vance kicked off a campaign speech in Budapest Tuesday night by declaring, "We have got to get Viktor Orbán reelected as Prime Minister of Hungary, don't we?"

This raises some intriguing questions about we.

Does we refer to the American companies doing business in Hungary who were hit with anti-foreigner "windfall taxes" in 2022 to plug Orbán's latest budget deficits? Maybe it's the boys from General Electric, who made a historic 1989 investment in the region's first major privatization deal, only to see their financial wing get pushed out of the country in 2014 when Orbán began renationalizing banks?

We know that we isn't referring to Hungarian citizens living in America, because those who go vote at their local embassy or consulate are almost certain to back Orbán's opponent, the front-running Péter Magyar. And we're damn certain it isn't the overwhelming majority of Americans who sympathize with Ukraine rather Russia in the ongoing war next door, given that barely a day goes by without another embarrassing leak of a top official kissing Vladimir Putin's ring amidst an electoral campaign—very much including the events attended yesterday by Vance—whose main villain has been Volodomyr Zelenskyy.

So it's a narrower, political we, filled with people like Vance's putative rival for the 2028 GOP presidential race, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who cooed to Orbán during his own campaign visit to Hungary in February: "Your success is our success." Though even there, Rubio's sincerity may be questioned, given that as senator in 2019 he co-wrote a letter to President Donald Trump expressing "concern about Hungary's downward democratic trajectory and the implications for U.S. interests in Central Europe," noting that "Hungary has experienced a steady corrosion of freedom, the rule of law and quality........

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