What the Hell Was Vance Doing in Hungary?

One has to ask why Vice President Vance travelled to Hungary to openly endorse the reelection campaign of President Viktor Orban. The entire episode reeks of poor judgment.

It is not as if the United States makes a habit of dispatching high-ranking officials to insert themselves into the electoral processes of other sovereign nations. Au contraire. After all, we Americans become positively apoplectic when we suspect foreign interference in our own elections. One would assume that the people of Hungary feel much the same way about American politicians showing up on their soil to influence the outcome of their vote. Yet there was Vance, grinning for the cameras alongside Orban as if he were stumping for a local school board candidate back home.

Orban, by all accounts, finds himself in political trouble. His grip on power appears to be slipping, and his invitation to Vance represents nothing more than a desperate Hail Mary pass. One can almost picture the Hungarian leader thinking that a boost from the American Vice President might rally his base or intimidate his opponents. What a brilliant calculation that turned out to be. Reports from Budapest indicate that Orban fared even worse in the polls after Vance’s visit. Instead of a surge in support, the endorsement seems to have backfired spectacularly, handing ammunition to Orban’s critics who now paint him as beholden to foreign interests.

What makes the trip even more perplexing is that it delivered zero discernible benefits to the United States, to Vance or to the Trump administration. Not one strategic advantage appears to have been gained. No trade deal was advanced. No security agreement was strengthened. No support for the fight in Iran.

No vital national interest was advanced by cozying up to Orban at this particular moment. Instead, the visit has invited a predictable torrent of criticism from Trump’s political adversaries, who waste no time labeling the administration as soft on authoritarians. Even some of the president’s usual supporters scratch their heads in bewilderment, wondering aloud what possible good could come from sending Vance to Hungary.

Of course, none of this should shock those who have followed President Trump’s strange and enduring bromance with Orban. Trump has long praised the Hungarian strongman for his “Hungary for Hungarians” policies. One supposes that such rhetoric appeals to certain isolationist instincts. However, this friendship takes on a far more disturbing hue when viewed through the lens of Orban’s uncomfortably close relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. While the United States and its allies pour resources into countering Russian aggression, Orban has maintained warm ties with the Kremlin. That fact alone should give any clear-thinking American pause before offering public endorsements on Hungarian soil. In fact, criticism seems more appropriate.

In the end, Vance’s jaunt to Budapest comes across as amateurish foreign policy at best and dangerously tone-deaf meddling at worst. It undermines the long-standing American principle of allowing other world democracies to conduct their own affairs without overt interference from Washington. It provides political opponents with fresh material to paint the administration as erratic and unprincipled. And it accomplishes nothing of value for the American people who expect their leaders to focus on domestic priorities and America’s own foreign affairs interests — rather than playing campaign surrogate for a controversial likely to be ousted European leader with questionable alliances.

So, there ‘tis.