Vice President JD Vance called Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán “one of the only true statesmen in Europe” during a visit to Budapest on Tuesday (7 April).
Vance also described the autocrat as “one of the few people who can talk to people from all over the world” as he touted him as a peacemaker in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The visit comes. just days before Hungary’s parliamentary election on Sunday (12 April), seen as Orbán’s most challenging in a nearly 40-year political career after winning four consecutive terms since 2010.
But Vance’s arrival also coincided with an embarrassing leaked phone call from October 2025, reported by Bloomberg, in which Orbán promised he would help Russia’s Vladimir Putin “in any way” to defeat Ukraine.