Trump's Trials - Vance visits Hungary to bolster support for prime minister ahead of election

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

Vice President JD Vance is in Budapest to join an election rally for incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ahead of Hungary's election. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detrow, and this is Trump's terms from NPR. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's coverage of the Trump administration with the focus on actions and policies that take the presidency into uncharted territory. Here's the latest from NPR. From NPR news, I'm Lela Falded. Vice President Vance arrives in Budapest today to try to boost support for Europe's longest-serving leader. Hungarian Prime Minister, Victor Orban, is a nationalist. an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and is trailing in the polls by double digits.

Elections take place this weekend. Here's NPR's Rob Schmitz. Vance's trip comes nearly two months after Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Budapest to support Orban ahead of his toughest election fight since taking power in 2010. National polls show Orban trailing a younger, charismatic conservative, Petra Majjar, who has united in opposition to Orban's Fidesz party. He managed to both embody and also to gather and capture the disillusionment with the Orban regime. Zhujana Vague, political analyst for the German Marshall Fund in Berlin, says Orban and his family are widely criticized inside Hungary for corruption. Orban is also criticized throughout the EU from methodically dismantling Hungary's democratic institutions like the courts, the free press,

and even the electoral system in the more than 15 years he's held power. These actions have led the EU to freeze billions in funding to Hungary, which has, in turn, contributed to Hungary's poorly performing economies, says Vague. Under Orban's watch, Hungary has become one of the poorest countries of the European Union, which is striking, given that Hungary, together with Poland, was among the frontrunners both economically and politically. after joining the EU. In the past week, Orban's foreign minister was caught on tape promising his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to work inside the EU to lift sanctions on

the sister of a Russian oligarch, an embarrassing scandal for Orban's pro-Russia government. Also in the past week, Orban convened a defense council meeting after making claims that there was a plan to blow up an important pipeline. But the opposition called the claims a false flag attempt aimed at influencing the vote and stoking fear. Analyst's question whether a visit from Vance will be enough to save Orban's political career. Rob Schmits, NPR News, Budapest. And before we wrap up, a thank you to our NPR Plus supporters who hear each show without sponsored messages and, of course, who help protect independent journalism.

If you are not a supporter yet, you can visit plus.npr.org to find out how you can get a ton of podcast perks across dozens of NPR shows, like bonus episodes, exclusive merchandise, and more. Again, that's plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's Terms from NPR.