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Speaking at a joint press conference held with the prime minister at his office complex, the Carmelite Monastery, the vice president said the United States wanted Europe to succeed, for energy to be affordable for European families, and for the continent to achieve energy independence — or even dominance.
Vance also said he was working to support Orbán ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election.
“I don’t expect, of course, the people of Hungary to listen to the vice president of the United States — that’s not primarily why I’m here — but I did want to send a signal to everybody, particularly the bureaucrats in Brussels who have done everything that they can to hold down the people of Hungary because they don’t like the leader who has actually stood up for the people of Hungary,” Vance said.
“I’m sure Viktor will win,” he noted.
Vance also said the United States would work with whoever won Sunday’s parliamentary election.
“We thank President Trump and Vice President Vance for standing up for Hungary,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told the press conference. “The United States is the strongest country in the world, and they are our allies today, which guarantees Hungary’s peace and security.”
Orbán noted that the last visit from a U.S. vice president occurred 30 years ago, and said it has been 20 years since a similarly high-ranking U.S. official had come to Hungary.
The re-election of Donald Trump, he said, had ushered in a “golden age” in U.S.-Hungary relations, with economic cooperation at a record high in 2025.
Orbán also noted that energy cooperation was especially important and key to Hungary’s energy security and to maintaining its utility price cap scheme. He praised the U.S. peace efforts and said Hungary had always supported them.
Regarding the upcoming election, Orbán said they were subject to “unusually harsh and open interference from foreign secret services”.
In view of that, “we welcome especially warmly the decision of the U.S. President to scrap U.S. financial interference into other countries’ political procedures,” Orbán said.
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