The Trump-Orbán Bromance Part 1: Bathing in media attention
When I visited the US as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2023, I was surprised to hear that people heard about Viktor Orbán. Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate, mentioned Orbán as a “great guy,” and he kept doing it. By now, the international press is paying attention to this international bromance.
In this series, I will explore two topics: the press's reaction to Trump and how they may repeat the errors of the Hungarian press. I will discuss whether the similarity and the bromance are real or just superficial things dictated by short-term political interest.
The life of a political commentator changed on January 20th when Donald Trump moved into the White House. Since then, producing content for opinion columns has become much easier. Each day brings something new and often more outrageous than the day before.
Are you a progressive urban liberal, working for a thinktank with the word “Rights” in its name? You can preach the end of the world, you can write long treatises on how fundamental rights are dismantled in front of us while we numbly write opinion columns about it. And those kids in that African country, what was its name…gosh…
Do you work for some altright opinion page? Time to own them libs! Time for those triumphant articles about how Smugly McSmug (they/them) was ousted from Libtard Ivy League University and how the Gay Submarine Initiative was a stalled by the brave Secretary Hegseth. (Later it turns out that this latter story was an accident. Gay Submarine Initiative is a porn flick that clandestine operators saved on your work drive right next to “Ivermectin Enema Nurses do Fauci.mp4”)
Are you some kind of conservative? Oh, you can rationalize. President Trump is trying to make some wiggle room for further negotiations as we can be sure that…come on. You can’t be sure and you know that. But you can’t agree with them libs. So you go on and explain, in detail, how things will eventually play out nicely. (For the record, I usually do this genre)
As a Hungarian political commentator, I have the privilege of watching the same show, but I am a few seasons ahead of my American colleagues. Let me share some spoilers here.
You will write about Him
In my Hungarian blog, I regularly cover Japanese sumo wrestling, road cycling, and classical music. I also try to add some flavor from my day job as a lawyer and anything that is not Orbán. I do this for my readers’ and my own mental health.
Over the past 15 years, Hungarian political journalism and political culture have become saturated with daily commentary on Viktor Orbán. Every two to three years, a new book is published detailing how Orbán came to power, dismantled democracy, and misappropriated the nation’s wealth. This subject has also been explored in various formats, including long and short documentaries, theater plays, and popular rap songs.
Orbán, a shrewd political strategist, takes full advantage of this phenomenon. He effectively controls public discourse. Whenever the Hungarian press begins to focus on genuine issues or a new political challenger, he shifts into noise generator mode. He may propose scandalous new legislation (we had 14 amendments of the constitution in the last 14 years), bluntly veto a perfectly sensible decision in the EU, or leak information to the media, prompting paparazzi to capture images of Orbán's associates on a luxury yacht.
There is a fundamental difference between the press in the United States and Hungary. Under Viktor Orbán's leadership, the Hungarian government has effectively eliminated funding sources for the free press. If a business advertises in independent media, it risks losing government contracts. Small businesses, in particular, can expect scrutiny from tax authorities.
Consequently, the free press in Hungary is severely underfunded, forcing them to rely on resources like Google Ads and Patreon for support. This dependency creates immense pressure to generate content and turn news feeds into SEO-driven operations. As a result, underfunded newsrooms often become echo chambers, amplifying Orbán’s messaging, as his content is abundant and freely available.
This situation means that even ardent criticism of Orbán can often end up benefiting him. Opposition politicians understandably want to attract attention, but even the independent press is so focused on Orbán that, to make headlines, politicians must comment on him.
The outcome resembles an experimental theater play by a Russian avant-garde writer in the 1920s. Everyone keeps repeating the same lines, and by the 15th repetition, no one is certain about what they are discussing. Even when something important comes around, they continue this pattern. It takes time to become so desensitized by constant commentary on the autocrat, but it is possible, and the American press is on the right track to reach that point.
In the next part: You will try to rationalize