{"id":14730,"date":"2026-04-07T13:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/14730\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:30:08","slug":"viktor-orbans-last-throw-of-the-maga-dice-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/14730\/","title":{"rendered":"Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s last throw of the MAGA dice \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the Hungarian prime minister it\u2019s a singular opportunity to portray himself as the Trump administration\u2019s pre-eminent European ally. Trump has previously praised him as \u201cone of the strongest\u201d world leaders<\/a>, and Orb\u00e1n anticipated MAGA\u2019s obsessions over a decade ago with his assertive nationalism, his contempt for the EU, and his success in asserting influence over Hungary\u2019s media and public institutions.<\/p>\n

For the White House, the visit is a sign of appreciation that Orb\u00e1n stuck with Trump through the tougher times \u2014 especially his four years out of power and his 2024 election campaign \u2014 when other world leaders shunned him.<\/p>\n

\"\"Donald Trump and JD Vance meet with Viktor Orb\u00e1n during a bilateral lunch in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington on November 7, 2025. | Roberto Schmidt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cOrb\u00e1n has been with the president for a very long time. He was with him through the trials and tribulations, through the entire campaign. There wasn\u2019t any world leader who wanted to meet with Trump or bonded, consistently made trips to Mar-a-Lago, made an effort to keep in contact with him,\u201d said the official, who was granted anonymity to share a perspective on the trip they weren\u2019t authorized to disclose publicly. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re sort of like repaying the favor here \u2014 it\u2019s a way to show that you\u2019ve been with us through thick and thin, and we\u2019ll do the same for you,\u201d the official added. <\/p>\n

Polls spell trouble for Orb\u00e1n<\/p>\n

The display of transatlantic loyalty probably won\u2019t alter the political equation in Hungary, however, where a growing swell of opposition to the ruling Fidesz party is focused on the country\u2019s economic weakness and the cronyism and corruption associated with Orb\u00e1n. That popular resistance has put P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s Tisza party in a strong position to win the vote, according to POLITICO\u2019s Poll of Polls<\/a>, which has shown him ahead since late 2024.<\/p>\n

Dislike for Trump among Hungarians is generally not as high as in Western Europe \u2014 where the U.S. leader has an almost 80 percent unpopularity rating<\/a> \u2014 but endorsements from the U.S. administration are far from a seal of victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the Hungarian prime minister it\u2019s a singular opportunity to portray himself as the Trump administration\u2019s pre-eminent European…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[532,38,286,8,1819,2430,74,139,1451,9,5967,4358,754,7,536,13,1820],"class_list":{"0":"post-14730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-hungary","13":"tag-intelligence","14":"tag-jd-vance","15":"tag-marco-rubio","16":"tag-media","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-peter-magyar","19":"tag-pipelines","20":"tag-poll","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-ukraine","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-viktor-orban"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116363671790097953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}