“No foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections. Dear Vice President of the United States, I respectfully ask: if you are already participating in the campaign in support of Viktor Orbán, let the Hungarians not pay for it with their own money.
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JD Vance Campaigns for Orbán Ahead of Hungary Election
April 7, 2026
Vice President JD Vance traveled to Budapest on April 7, 2026 to campaign for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ahead of the April 12 election — an extraordinary move by a sitting U.S. vice president to openly support a foreign leader's reelection. At a joint press conference, Vance said Orbán's leadership "can provide a model for the continent" and accused the EU of "one of the worst examples of foreign election interference" he'd ever seen. Opposition leader Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party leads in polls, responded by asking Vance not to make Hungarian taxpayers foot the bill for his visit. The trip overlapped with Vance's role managing the Iran crisis, leading to the surreal moment where he learned of Trump's "civilization will die" threat from a reporter while onstage with Orbán.
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“We have got to get Viktor Orbán reelected as prime minister of Hungary. His leadership can provide a model for the continent. I'm here to help as much as I possibly can. I won't tell the people of Hungary how to vote — I would encourage the bureaucrats in Brussels to do the exact same thing.
“What we see happening in Budapest is one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I've ever seen or ever even read about. The European Union bureaucrats in Brussels are trying to tell the Hungarian people how to vote. That is unacceptable.