‘This Is a Campaign Speech for Orbán’: Rubio Effusively Praises Hungarian Autocrat He Once Warned Trump About

Screenshot via X.

In 2,474 days, the Earth can go around the sun almost seven times, a bottle of Johnnie Walker’s Black Label Whisky is over halfway through its aging process, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio can completely reverse his views on a European autocrat.

Orbán is currently facing a tough re-election fight against opposition leader Péter Magyar, who has presented the first realistic challenge to Orbán’s grip on power in years. Last week, President Donald Trump posted a glowing endorsement on his Truth Social account, calling Orbán a “a truly strong and powerful Leader” who “fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America.”

During a visit to Budapest Monday, Rubio effusively praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, acting as a backup singer to the chorus of praises Trump has repeatedly sung for him.

“We want this economy to prosper,” said Rubio. “We want this country to do well. It’s in our national interest — especially as long as you’re the prime minister and the leader of this country. It’s in our national interest that Hungary be successful. It helps America and obviously it helps you.”

“I can say to you with confidence that President Trump is deeply committed to your success because your success is our success,” Rubio added, touting the “extraordinarily close relationship” Trump has with Orbán as something that “has had tangible benefits.”

Rubio’s comments were attacked by critics as sounding like a “campaign ad” for Orbán, and several pointed out the sharp reversal from his views just a few short years ago.

On May 10, 2019, when Rubio was representing Florida in the U.S. Senate and was a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, he signed onto a letter to Trump with then-Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and the committee’s chairman, Sen. James Risch (R-ID).

The letter was sent just before a scheduled meeting Trump had with Orbán and voices a clear warning in the first sentence that the senators were writing “to express concern about Hungary’s downward democratic trajectory and the implications
for U.S. interests in Central Europe,” and to “urge [Trump] to raise these issues in your meeting with the Prime Minister.”

“In recent years, democracy in Hungary has significantly eroded,” the letter continued, describing how the country “has experienced a steady corrosion of freedom, the rule of law and quality of governance according to virtually any indicator, including the assessments of the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute and the World Bank…Under Orban, the election process has become less competitive and the judiciary is increasingly controlled by the state. Press freedom has declined as advertisers have been strongly discouraged from placing ads in independent outlets and ownership has been consolidated under a foundation that is exempt from antitrust regulation.”

The senators noted that they were “profoundly concerned about the close relationship” between Orbán and Russia that was happening alongside Hungary’s reduction in democratic values and economic freedoms.

That 2019 letter was, of course, several years before Russia would invade Ukraine, making the senators’ unease about the need to “counter Kremlin aggression across Europe” all the more prescient. As Reuters reported, Orbán has made opposition to Ukraine a key part of his campaign, opposing letting Ukraine join the European Union, rejecting requests for aid, and accusing his opponents of wanting to drag Hungary into the war.

Read the May 10, 2019 letter on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ website.

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