BUDAPEST, Hungary — Vice President JD Vance repeatedly said he didn’t come to Hungary to tell people how to vote in their looming election.
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That changed during the barnstorming finale of his speech in Budapest late Tuesday.
“Will you stand for sovereignty and democracy, for truth and for the God of our forefathers?” Vance asked the Hungarian voters, cheered on by a standing ovation and whoops reverberating around the city’s MTK Sportpark arena. “Then, my friends, go to the polls this weekend, stand with Viktor Orbán, because he stands for you, and he stands for all these things.”
Vance flew to Hungary ostensibly to celebrate a “Hungarian-American friendship day.” In effect, he was the star attraction at a rally for Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister and a MAGA favorite, who is trailing in the polls days before Sunday’s nationwide election.
Orbán’s challenger is Peter Magyar, who was once a member of Orbán’s Fidesz party but now accuses the incumbent of rampant corruption. If polls are accurate, Magyar’s Tisza party is poised to assume power in the parliamentary vote.
Taking a break from talks to end the Iran war, Vance arrived in the midst of a febrile campaign. He said the U.S. would work with whoever wins, before joking that he knew Orbán would prevail anyway.
“We have got to get Viktor Orbán reelected as prime minister of Hungary, don’t we?” Vance asked. Earlier, he had accused the European Union of “foreign election interference,” referring to the E.U.’s freezing of billions of euros in funding over Hungary’s democratic backsliding.
The irony was not lost on some observers.
“He is so openly campaigning for Orbán at this point that it cannot be seen as a regular state visit,” said Samuel Barczy, 27, one of a handful of protesters outside Vance’s speech.
“As you can see there’s not many demonstrators,” he told NBC News near Sandor Palace, the neoclassical presidential residence where Vance and Orbán held their earlier news conference. “But that’s because not many Hungarians know who Vance is.”
Indeed, it is highly unusual for a senior U.S. politician — or any figure from a Western country — to fly into the final days of a foreign election campaign to boost an ailing ally. E.U. spokesman Thomas Regnier responded to Vance’s visit and criticism by saying in a statement that “in Europe, elections are the sole choice of the citizens.”
Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Wednesday he defended himself against allegations of foreign interference at an event in Budapest.
“Foreign influence is when other governments threaten, cajole, and try to use economic influence to tell you how to vote,” he said. “Whether you like Viktor Orbán or not, whether you agree with this or that policy, that is fundamentally an assault on your sovereignty.”
He is far from the only right-wing figure attempting to keep their pioneer in power. An Orban video earlier this year showed a compilation of endorsements from the likes of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, Argentina’s Javier Milei and France’s Marine le Pen.
The Hungarian leader has claimed “deep involvement” in crafting Trump’s message and political strategy. But more than that he is a trailblazer for the international populist far-right, railing against immigration, Muslims, the LGBTQ+ community and green policies. If anything he plays into this image as the bête noire of mainstream politicians, branding his administration as an “illiberal democracy.”
The E.U. and many independent scholars say Hungary has moved beyond even that. The bloc says Orbán’s Hungary can no longer be considered a full democracy but is rather an “elective autocracy,” having curbed judicial independence and press freedom. The country is also ranked as the most corrupt in Europe.
Orbán and his supporters deny the characterization that Hungary has become less democratic, pointing to the current close electoral race as evidence. The prime minister characterizes such foreign commentary on his country as an attempt to interfere in its domestic politics, telling the crowd Tuesday, “I recommend everyone keep their hands off Hungary.”
He also cast the election in apocalyptic terms.
On Tuesday he said this was not just a vote about his political future, but rather called on “freedom-loving Americans and Hungarians” to “unite and save Western civilization.” He announced that Hungary would launch a “reconquista” of European institutions — referring to a 700-year military campaign by Catholic states to recapture the Iberian peninsula from Muslim rule.
For Fidesz and Orbán, the stakes are high.
If Magyar’s party gets a two-thirds supermajority, it could launch “investigations into the Orbán government’s corruption,” the Atlantic Council think tank said in a briefing Monday. “Orbán’s response to an election loss would likely be defiant, and he would almost certainly demand a recount.” Indeed he has echoed Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
It has been a heated campaign, replete with allegations of Kremlin-inspired “false flag” operations, wiretapping and even a rumored sex tape involving Magyar himself.
But while Vance’s intervention provided another dramatic moment, it may not have a material impact on the result, according to Gabor Halmai, an emeritus professor at Hungary’s Eötvös Loránd University. Halmai said there was no guarantee Vance’s arrival would help Orbán’s electoral chances — and could even hinder them.
Trump polls higher in Hungary than in many other countries. But even here he remains a divisive figure, with 46% of people having little or no confidence in him, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center in June last year.
“I don’t know whether this kind of support will be positive for Orbán,” Halmai said. “Trump is not that popular among a lot of people.”
Orbán also has a complex and often fraught relationship with the E.U.
Hungary is one of the bloc’s 27 members, but Orbán has often acted as a thorn from within. Last month he vetoed a major 90 billion euro ($104 billion) loan to helpUkraine weather Russia’s ongoing assault.
Many independent geopolitical analysts, as well as critics, point to Orbán’s close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as a reason for his spoiler tactics. Orbán denies that, saying he is merely acting in Hungary’s own national interest and trying to stay out of the war.
Whatever the motives, Orbán, Putin and Vance often echo each other in their hostile tone toward the E.U. and its continued support of Ukraine. On Tuesday Vance derided the “disgraceful,” “faceless bureaucrats” over their opposition to Orbán.
Inside the arena, supporters lapped it up.
“It meant so much that he spoke for so long, and also that he spoke from the heart — this was not a propaganda speech,” said Peter Kintsly, 67, an entrepreneur from Budapest, sharing a scarce taxi back into Budapest’s downtown.
Vance talked about the Hungarian battle against Soviet rule, including the failed, bloody revolution of 1956. He even invoked King Saint Stephen, the country’s first monarch, who ruled from 997 to 1001.
“He clearly knew what he was talking about,” Kintsly said.
Vance began by calling Trump and putting the president on speakerphone. “I love that Viktor,” Trump told the crowd. “He didn’t allow people to storm your country and invade your country like other people have ruined their countries.”
From there, over the course of 40 minutes the vice president wove a story that had Washington and Budapest as the central players in a growing worldwide “revolution” against liberal elites.
“I see the way those same leaders sneer at the normal God-fearing people of Hungary,” he said. “I see that those who hate Europe the most, who hate its borders, its energy independence, the people who hate its Christian heritage, they hate one man above all others, and his name is Viktor Orbán.”
Vance told the crowd he wanted to discuss the “shared threat from within that both of our nations face. I speak, of course, of a far-left ideology given quarter in university circles, in the media and in our entertainment industry, and increasingly among bureaucrats on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Earlier in the day he had called Orbán “one of the only true statesmen in Europe” — a caustic aside that will be heard in London, Berlin and Paris. “The president loves you,” Vance told the Hungarian.