It had previously been suggested that former prime minister Viktor Orbán could, with Trump’s help, secure a deputy secretary-general’s post at the United Nations, granting him diplomatic immunity. Meanwhile, the MAGA movement associated with Trump could take over some of the international organisations established by Orbán’s governments and operate them as its own lobbying vehicles within the European Union – an economic and commercial rival.
A vast and costly international lobbying operation
Over 16 years, Viktor Orbán built not only a formidable, if politically unstable, power base in Hungary. In Brussels, too, he established an institutional network designed to support conservative and radical-right forces, influence policy debates and cultivate European alliances.
Following the electoral defeat, however, one of the system’s most important pillars – funding from the Hungarian state and its affiliated bodies – appears to be crumbling.
One of the network’s central players was the Brussels office of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC). Opened in 2022, the institution focused on issues favoured by the Orbán system and its wider alliance network, including migration, gender politics, climate change and the external funding of civil-society organisations in the European Union.
Its work was supported by an annual budget of more than €6 million – equivalent to between 1.8 billion and 2 billion forints – underpinned by assets worth roughly 500 billion forints provided by the Orbán government. This is what Péter Magyar’s government, backed by a two-thirds majority, effectively stripped from the MCC with a single stroke of the pen.
Alongside the MCC, the Danube Institute, The European Conservative magazine and the foundation behind CPAC Hungary were also part of the circle of organisations supported by the Orbán government with many billions of forints in public money.
The House of Hungary was another important element of the network. In 2021, the Hungarian state bought the Brussels building, dating from the 18th century, and opened it as an events venue ahead of Hungary’s EU presidency in 2024. The property is now standing empty, however, and no decision has been made on its future use.
Trump could rescue some institutions
After the change of government, the new administration ended or reviewed state support for several of these institutions. The MCC found itself in a particularly difficult position. Frank Furedi, the head of its Brussels organisation, has said that the centre could eventually be forced to close without a new source of funding, although it might continue operating on a smaller budget.
Expert assessments suggest, however, that maintaining a network on the scale and with the intensity seen during the Orbán era is no longer realistic.
This is where Donald Trump and the American MAGA movement could enter the picture. According to a Bloomberg analysis cited by Portfolio, programmes have already emerged in the United States to support European conservative civil-society organisations working on sovereignty, migration, censorship and “lawfare”.
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The institutions linked to Orbán could therefore find new American backers – particularly as Trump’s allies are themselves seeking to strengthen ties with Europe’s radical right in order to expand their influence over EU affairs.
The question, then, is not necessarily whether Orbán’s Brussels network will disappear, but who will take over its funding, in what form it might survive and whose interests it would serve.
Influence is valuable amid mounting conflict
As is well known, neither Trump nor his movement regards the European Union or the NATO member states as allies in the same way as previous American administrations did. The threat of a tariff and trade war is gathering over both sides of the Atlantic; the dispute over Greenland remains unresolved; and Washington and Brussels do not necessarily share the same view on how to bring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to an end.
There are also disagreements over American intervention in Iran and the regulation of US technology giants in Europe.
For Trump, an effective lobbying organisation could therefore prove valuable on several fronts: in academia, among civil-society groups and in politics.
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