Budapest, Hungary — When President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, he was eager to pick up where he left off by strengthening ties with Europe’s right wing. But now many of those same factions are expressing open disgust at the Iran war, tearing apart relations that were supposed to lead to a new international order.
Although Vice President J.D. Vance During Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s election campaign this week, such displays have become the exception rather than the rule among conservatives and far-right leaders in Europe.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni refused to allow the United States to use an air base in Sicily to launch attacks on Iran. The leader of the French National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, described its goals in the war as “irregular.” The head of the Alternative for Germany party called on American forces to leave their bases in the country.
Even with A fragile ceasefire In the shadow of Iran, Trump’s support for Orban may not sit well with the authoritarian Hungarian leader, who faces tough elections this weekend. He has long been a symbol of the global right and the many American conservatives who have done so He expressed hope that the Trump administration would be able to repeat this The Hungarian leader’s efforts to stifle migration and restructure the government to ensure his Fidesz party remains in power.
This long-term engagement could insulate Orban from some of the anti-Trump backlash rocking the rest of Europe, but that is not guaranteed, said Charles Kupchan, a professor of international relations at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Getting a blessing from Donald Trump is now a blessing and a curse,” he said.
Violent reaction to the war follows the Europeans Widespread disgust at Trump’s threats earlier this year against Denmark, a NATO ally, over its demand that the country give Greenland to the United States.
Trump linked the two issues together on Wednesday, complaining that NATO had not provided more assistance in recent weeks.
“NATO was not there when we needed them, and will not be there if we need them again,” he wrote on social media. “Remember Greenland, that big, poorly-moved piece of ice!!!”
Daniel Baer, a former ambassador and State Department official under President Barack Obama, said the latest round of tension with the far right in Europe shows the limits of Trump’s hope of helping nationalist leaders around the world.
“Building some kind of international coalition around national chauvinism is very difficult,” said Baer, who now works at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. “It is clear that the majority of people in these countries, if not anti-American, have turned anti-Trump.”
Orban has stood out for not changing with the anti-Trump political tide in Europe.
In an interview with the conservative British broadcaster GB News last month, Orban said that when it comes to war with Iran, “the question is whether (Trump) has started a war or a peace.”
“That has not been determined yet, and historians will make a decision about that,” Orbán said. “I think we need some time to understand whether we are moving towards peace with these strikes, or just the opposite. It is too early to say.”
Orbán’s wariness toward drawing any criticism of Trump goes beyond shared ideology. The Hungarian leader has sought for years to convince voters that his close ties with Trump — as well as with other world figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin — make him uniquely suited to represent Hungary’s interests abroad.
As a result, he boosted Trump’s praise among his base, and campaigned for re-election by assuring Hungarians that his alliance with the Trump administration was a guarantee of security and prosperity.
Urban enjoyed Vance’s attention this week. The vice president criticized Orban’s critics in the European Union for what he called “foreign interference” in the election, even as he objected to the Hungarian leader.
On Wednesday, Vance briefly discussed what he called the “fragile truce” in the Iran war during an appearance at Hungary’s elite institution of higher education, which has received generous funding from Orbán’s government and is run by the prime minister’s political director.
Vance praised the school for being “an institution trying to build the foundations of Western civilization.” The Trump administration has attempted to exert more influence over elite universities in the United States, mirroring Orban’s agenda in Hungary.
Some analysts are not convinced by Orban’s strategy, noting that perceptions of the current US administration have become more negative even in Hungary.
“Vance’s visit may have the opposite effect on Orban’s popularity than intended,” said Mario Picarescu, chief Europe analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.
Most European far-right parties have established political staying power independent of any American influence, and may have no incentive to align with Trump’s agenda, Kupchan said.
“Trump’s efforts to create a transnational movement of far-right populists may influence the margins, but the main reason we are seeing reform flourish in the UK, the AfD, the National Rally and other far-right parties has less to do with Trump and more to do with national factors,” he said.
Part of this is a global backlash against any party in power. In Europe, this has mainly benefited the out-of-power far-right. But in Hungary, this puts Orbán’s future in jeopardy – he has been in power for 16 years.
“We live in an era where incumbency is a bad thing,” Kupchan said.
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Riccardi reported from Denver.