With election day just around the corner and Donald Trump locked in a tight race with Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency, some mainstream Republicans are increasingly alarmed by an overseas effort to push the former president closer to aligning with Russia. Surprisingly, this influence is not coming from the Kremlin but from Hungary.
According to a report from Politico, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is behind a campaign to sway a potential future Trump administration through intermediaries and paid right-wing “influencers,” a strategy aimed at boosting his profile with Russia. This effort has caught the attention of moderate Republicans who worry that Trump, influenced by his friendship with Orbán, may be drawn further into supporting policies that align with Russian interests.
Politico’s Heidi Przybyla and Nicholas Vinocur report that the Hungarian message is particularly concerning to mainstream Republican foreign-policy officials. They see it as part of an ongoing influence campaign targeting Trump and various groups seeking his favor as he competes against Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.
The report details how this influence campaign has expanded to include transatlantic conferences, U.S. journalists being paid with Hungarian funds, and a formal agreement between a think tank funded by Orbán’s Fidesz Party, the Danube Institute, and The Heritage Foundation, which aims to shape the policies of a potential second Trump administration.
Central to this influence campaign is the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), which the Politico report describes as “a nerve center for incubating policies for a second Trump administration.” CPI has become a significant player in Trump’s MAGA movement, raising substantial funds and including in its ranks some of Trump’s most loyal supporters, such as his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
The Heritage Foundation, led by President Kevin Roberts, has also played a role in lobbying for influence in a future Trump administration through its Project 2025 initiative. The foundation, which Roberts describes as seeing Orbán’s leadership as a “model for conservative governance,” has actively lobbied Congress to end funding for Ukraine, further aligning with Orbán’s interests.
One source involved in these meetings explained, “They [Orbán allies] say things people want to hear about issues they care about. It’s ‘woke this and woke that,’ and then they pressure them with what they really want.” As Orbán’s influence campaign continues to unfold, it raises significant concerns among Republicans about the potential impact on U.S. foreign policy and Trump’s alignment with global powers like Russia.