JD Vance’s trip to Hungary to help boost its pro-Trump leader’s election hopes has been marred by the leak of a phone call showing the right-winger sucking up to Vladimir Putin.
The vice president arrived in Budapest on Tuesday morning to show support for Viktor Orbán, a far-right leader facing a serious risk of losing Hungary’s April 12 election, which could end his 16-year rule.
On the morning of Vance’s European trip, Bloomberg revealed that Orbán told the Russian president in October 2025 that he was prepared to help Moscow “in any way” to win the war in Ukraine, adding: “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.”
According to a leaked transcript of the phone call, Orbán also compared himself to a mouse rescuing a trapped lion after it spared the rodent, a reference to a European fable, which reportedly drew laughter from the two allies.
Orbán also told Putin of his hopes to hold a summit in Budapest to show support for Russia amid its four-year invasion of Ukraine, and even discussed plans to involve the U.S. as well. The event in the Hungarian capital never took place.
Vance and his wife, Usha, were welcomed off Air Force Two at a Budapest airport on Tuesday morning by Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó. Vance will appear at a rally in Budapest alongside Orbán later Tuesday local time.
Orbán is a longtime ally of Putin and is widely viewed as one of the Russian president’s closest supporters within NATO and the European Union.
Orbán’s close ties with Moscow, combined with a languishing economy, have been a major campaign issue in Hungary’s upcoming election.
Center-right opposition party Tisza, led by Péter Magyar, a former insider in Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party, has recorded double-digit leads in the polls ahead of next week’s vote. Magyar has campaigned on strengthening Hungary’s alliance with the rest of Europe and moving the country away from Russia.
Trump and Orbán have also been close allies for years, with Orbán becoming the first European Union leader to back Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has enthusiastically endorsed the anti-immigration Hungarian leader’s re-election campaign and is now sending Vance to bolster the administration’s support.
Last month, The Washington Post reported that Szijjártó is alleged to have frequently leaked confidential EU information to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Because of this, “every single EU meeting for years has basically had Moscow behind the table,” one official told the Post.
During the October 2025 phone call, Putin suggested to Orbán that Lavrov could also meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio around the time of the proposed Russia–United States summit in Budapest.
Orbán and Putin also praised their mutual friend Trump during the call. The Hungarian prime minister said he appreciates Trump’s “tornado”-style business approach, with Putin saying the 79-year-old “moves forward like a tank.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Vance’s office for comment.
