If one were to believe that the survival of the West is at a crucial inflection point, it makes sense that America — the lone superpower, as an enfeebled Britain limps along self-righteously — would shore up allies in the Old Country. One way to do that is to send the most powerful man in the world’s Number Two to both extend the hand of goodwill and rapport, and to absorb the inevitable criticisms that have been hurled by the Continental class regarding the potential partnership.
It tracks then that the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cannot seem to comprehend why Vice President JD Vance is currently touring Budapest. “The Orbán affinity seems to be a combination of Mr. Vance’s ideological conviction and domestic coalition maintenance,” the paper writes, adding that, “Mr. Vance is convinced Mr. Orbán is on the front line of the West’s culture wars.” Orbán is. And Vance’s Budapest visit is possibly one of his career’s most important tests.
Consider the VP’s own words. “Foreign influence is when other governments threaten, cajole, and try to use economic influence to tell you how to vote … That is fundamentally an assault on your sovereignty,” the VP said in an interview. Furthermore, he added, in a speech, “We were birthed from this continent,” reinforcing the civilizational ties. The WSJ is baffled at that. “Mr. Vance trotted out the word ‘sovereignty’ repeatedly during Tuesday’s appearance in Budapest to inveigh against putative EU meddling in Hungarian affairs.”
The Hungarian election this year is important for two different reasons. The fact that the VP is flying to Budapest for a high-profile visit and speeches in Europe, as well as to Islamabad, for the peace negotiations with Iran, demonstrates which side won the ideological debate within the White House and to which direction the grand strategy of this country might lead. But there is another important factor.
Beyond rhetorical symbolism about “civilizational ties,” the question is strategic. Within the European Union, Hungary remains one of the rare few states still considered neutral by both the U.S. and Russia, thereby positioning itself as a neutral ground for diplomacy.
Furthermore, Budapest has prioritized de-escalation in Ukraine since 2022 and continues to simultaneously condemn the Russian invasion while arguing for negotiation, a traditional detached realist outlook shaped by Hungarian geography: Hungary borders Ukraine, and is concerned about ethnic Hungarians in the Transcarpathia region, and has taken in over a million Ukrainian refugees.
Budapest is also a pivot point for U.S. trade rivalry with the EU. The Hungarian leadership consistently argued that EU sanctions on Russia have had unintended consequences, including energy shortages, inflation, and industrial strain in Europe, while Russia has continued to benefit from high global energy prices. Orbán has likewise warned against accelerating Ukraine’s membership in NATO, a position that has gained some reflection in recent U.S. strategic thinking.
The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy clearly states that there must be a pause in NATO enlargement, there should be total “burden shifting” of conventional security to NATO, and that the EU shouldn’t fine American companies and trade through cynical legislation that also curtails free speech, such as the European Digital Services Act. There is only one country that is aligned with the U.S. on all those interests.
Hungary faces its own challenges and contradictions. Eventually, it will have to either acquiesce to broader European oversight or follow Britain out of the EU. Orbán has sought to reform the EU from within rather than leave it, but that play won’t succeed without the U.S. decisively winning the trade and free-speech wars with the EU. His government faces ongoing pressure from Brussels through legal challenges and financial penalties, but being within the EU gives it veto power over European decisions that might harm U.S. financial interests.
Hungary is also a testing ground and a source of inspiration for similar socio-political tendencies in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, particularly in natalist policies, even if its model is difficult to replicate in larger and more diverse societies.
This is rooted in Hungary’s historical experience with external domination, against the Nazis and Soviets, which reinforces elite skepticism toward ceding total authority to Brussels. Continued electoral success for Orbán would sustain this fragile model but likely also intensify EU pressure and raise the risk of political and economic friction. A defeat, however, would probably lead to rapid alignment with mainstream EU trade and social policies, and would be detrimental to U.S. interests.
It cannot be expected of the WSJ Editorial Board to be historically minded, but during the presidency of Millard Fillmore, the Hungarian nationalist Lajos (Louis) Kossuth visited and gave a joint address at the U.S. Congress, the second such foreigner after Lafayette. He then proceeded to visit Ohio, then the largest Hungarian diaspora in the country, and gave a speech stating that the spirit of our age is democracy opposed to imperialism. Whether he can pull the current Hungarian administration over the electoral line is a different question, but it is only fitting that a former senator of Ohio and the current vice president be visiting Europe and remind Europeans of that same sentiment, that sovereignty, free speech, and democracy are far more important than transnational imperialism.
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Dr. Sumantra Maitra is a historian based in Virginia.
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