JD Vance speaks on the phone outside the entrance of the West Wing of the White House, on April 1, 2026.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Vance in Budapest: Viktor Orbán’s last throw of the MAGA dice – POLITICO

07 Apr 2026, 02:00 · POLITICO

BUDAPEST — JD Vance will visit Hungary on Tuesday in an 11th-hour attempt to boost key MAGA ally Prime Minister Viktor Orbán before an all-important election on Sunday, but the U.S. vice president’s trip appears unlikely to swing an increasingly bitter race.

President Donald Trump has already issued several endorsements of Orbán — a Kremlin-aligned proponent of “illiberal democracy” — but polls suggest those interventions have done little to boost the struggling prime minister, who faces the battle of his political life to extend his 16 years in power.

Orbán says he is “looking forward” to Vance’s trip, and with a Budapest press conference and a flag-waving rally at a 24,000-seat football stadium on Tuesday will be attempting to seize what momentum he can from it.