PM Orbán and Hungary may become a policymaker in the USA if Trump wins: the background of their bromance

PM Orbán admitted this summer that his people are involved in Trump’s program writing system. The two leaders regularly praise each other’s work. It is unprecedented that a potential US president has such strong ties to a small country’s leader like Hungary’s Orbán. How could PM Orbán get into the inner circles of Trump, and will that relationship be profitable for Hungary? Szabad Európa talked with multiple diplomats, background experts, etc. to unravel the evolution of the unprecedented Trump-Orbán ‘bromance’.

The Trump-Orbán bromance

If you google bromance, one of the first definitions will be: “a close but non-sexual relationship between two men”. John Fund, a well-known American journalist, characterised Trump’s close relationship with PM Viktor Orbán with that word. He added that Orbán knew how to speak with Trump to make him comfortable.

Szabad Európa reminded readers that Orbán endorsed Trump when he was only a presidential nominee in 2016, and it did not seem possible that he could win the primaries. Eventually, he did. Since then, the Orbán cabinet has been spending immense amounts of money to get into the inner circles of the former President.

During the first Trump administration, official lobbyists like Tucker Carlson’s father, Richard Carlson, did that work with David Reaboi. After Biden’s victory, official contracts ended, and new ones were not signed. However, that does not mean the project did not continue. We wrote HERE about Orbán’s Danube Institute, which allegedly spent HUF 0.5 billion on promoting the Orbán cabinet in the USA. Moreover, Rod Dreher regularly writes articles praising the policies of the Orbán cabinet in conservative American papers and received USD 5,666/month for that work in 2022 and USD 8,750/month in 2023.

Fidesz-organised Tusványos festival in Transylvania. Photo: Facebook/Viktor Orbán

Party, think tank, and personal relations

The Trump-Orbán relationship has three spheres, Szabad Európa writes. The first is the relationship between the Republican Party (and its wing dominated by Trump) and Hungarian government officials. The media outlet’s sources said those relations are not deep because Republicans do not concentrate on developing international relations.

The second sphere is the think tanks, where the Orbán cabinet may have strategic positions. Several Hungarian organisations are involved, like the Századvég and the Alapjogokért Központ. The latter organises the CPAC Budapest events, which can only happen because the Hungarian government has enough money to cover its costs: CPAC is free for the participants.

CPAC in Budapest with PM Orbán. He has enough money to organise it. Photo: facebook.com/orbanviktor

Cooperations with e.g. the Heritage Foundation or the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) may become key if Trump wins, and those think tanks will define many areas of his policies. Allegedly, the AFPI has already drafted more than 300 decrees for Trump.

In 2019, Trump did not know Orbán

Finally, the third sphere is the personal relationship between Orbán and Trump. That developed a lot since in 2019, before the European parliamentary elections, when Orbán finally got an invitation to the White House, Trump did not know his name. Now he does, and regularly mentions and praises Orbán in his campaign addresses.

Tucker Carlson did a lot to boost that bromance. In 2021, he came to Hungary and praised Orbán for seven days. Nobody knows how much the government paid for Carlson because all documents have been classified for thirty years. However, Carlson’s fee was around USD 70,000 then. The American anchorman said he came to Hungary for free.

Carlson and Orbán. https://www.facebook.com/orbanviktor

Relations with the Trump team are also important

From the Hungarian side, Balázs Orbán played a key part in developing the relationship. He regularly meets and speaks with MAGA Republicans to get into the inner circles of the Trump team. Informants told Szabad Európa that Orbán is in a ‘text message relationship’ with multiple important Republican politicians.

Furthermore, Orbán knows what to tell Trump and how to speak with him. John Fund, a journalist for National Reporter, said Trump wants to hear he is strong, the Europeans are afraid of him, he can negotiate and carry out magnificent things. Strongmen are his weakness, and Orbán perfectly fits that role.

The first meeting in 2019. Their relationship has developed a lot since then. Photo: facebook.com/Orbán Viktor

Orbán knows that when Trump wins, his schedule will become tight. Therefore, he allocated immense resources to solidify his relations with key figures around Trump. One of them is Donald Trump Jr.: he was in Budapest this June and held talks with PM Orbán. Another important figure is Trump’s VP candidate, J.D. Vance, who praised Orbán in multiple interviews.

Read also:

• Trump’s triumph could mean PM Orbán’s defeat and a government change in 2026 – read more HERE
• Opinion: The Trump-Orbán bromance – details in THIS article