Mitch McConnell Trolls Trump and Vance Over Anti-Orbán Landslide in Fox News Op-Ed

LEFT: Donald Trump and JD Vance (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) RIGHT: Mitch McConnell (Screenshot)

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the longtime GOP leader and intra-party critic of President Donald Trump, trolled the commander-in-chief and his right-hand man over the defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday, one day after Orbán suffered a landslide defeat after 16 years in power.

Trump and his administration had explicitly backed Orbán in the election, with Vice President JD Vance even traveling to the eastern European nation last week to hit the stump on behalf of Orbán.

“Viktor Orbán is, of course, going to win,” declared Vance at a rally last Tuesday, at which he put his boss on speakerphone.

“I love Hungary, and I love Viktor. I’m telling you he’s a fantastic man,” said Trump. “I’m a big fan of Viktor. I’m with him all the way.”

Orbán has been praised by some American conservatives for his right-wing social policies and opposition to mass migration, but criticized by others over democratic backsliding under his watch, as well as his relatively friendly posture toward Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

McConnell counts himself among the latter group, and in an op-ed for Fox News Digital following Orbán’s defeat, the Senate veteran made his case under the headline, “Hungary’s voters offer a lesson for those on the right drawn to Orban.”

“America’s self-proclaimed national conservatives spoke of Orban’s Hungary as an oasis of traditionalism amid the wasteland of an ailing, liberal, and decadent postmodern Europe. And some American politicians appear to have bought into the myth,” wrote McConnell. “To be clear, it is a myth. Orban’s champions on this side of the Atlantic may well consider his illiberal court-packing, crony capitalism or restriction of free speech an acceptable price for their desired social utopia. Yet for all the talk of reviving faith and family through statist intervention, Hungary’s religious participation and birth rates under his rule have declined right alongside the rest of the West.”

“Orban’s fawning servitude to authoritarians doesn’t reflect American values. But far more importantly, his government’s fealty to Moscow, its willingness to be a gateway into Europe for China’s predatory machinations, and its deepening ties with Iran run counter to America’s interests,” he continued. “Watching this from Kentucky, it is hard to understand how some on the American right thought that staking U.S. influence on the outcome of a parliamentary election in a small, central European country was putting America’s interests first. To the extent that what happens in Hungary matters to America, it is a question of whether its actions on the world stage — not its social policies — align with America’s strategic interests. The future course of U.S.-Hungary strategic alignment under the new government remains to be seen. But to the extent that Hungary’s next leaders behave with less obeisance toward our adversaries and a more serious focus on our shared interests, Washington may be wise to welcome this change.”

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