Trump's foreign election ad-Vance man |
Trump’s foreign election ad-Vance man
There is something jarring about seeing the vice president of the United States speaking at a campaign rally for the election of a foreign leader. That’s exactly what happened last week when Vice President JD Vance, on an official, two-day state visit to Hungary, gave a full-throated endorsement of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for re-election in last Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
Although Vance repeatedly asserted in response to media inquiries that he was not in Hungary to tell the people whom to vote for, he belied that assertion when he asked a rally of 5,000 Orban supporters at Budapest’s MTK Sportpark: “Will you stand for sovereignty and democracy, for truth and for the God of our Forefathers?”
In answer to his rhetorical question, he said: “Then, my friends, go to the polls this weekend and stand with Viktor Orban, because he stands for you, and he stands for all these things.”
There was never a question that Vance’s visit and endorsement had the full support of the Trump administration from the top down. In March, President Trump released a social media video titled, “A Complete and Total Endorsement,” embracing Orban’s reelection. In February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Hungary with much the same message. Even last Sunday morning, on election day, Donald Trump, Jr. posted on X a message that called on “friends in Hungary” to vote for “my father’s good friend and ally” Orban, “someone who stands for Hungary first.”
Despite all the administration’s tub thumping for Orban and his “illiberal Christian........