Lost elections reveal Trump’s unpopularity, poor political judgment

The Trump administration just suffered another landslide loss in a special election. We have heard about Democrats winning state legislative seats in the Florida district that includes Mar-a-Lago and in a Republican district in Fort Worth, but the latest defeat for Donald Trump and his allies came in Hungary.

You might ask: What the hell does an election in Hungary have to do with Trump and his administration? And that's a good question. But Vice President J.D. Vance recently took time away from negotiations with Iran and other pressing priorities to campaign for Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, whose right-wing Fidesz Party had been in power since 2010.

When the election was held on April 12, Orban’s opponent Peter Magyar and his party won by a landslide, taking 138 out of 199 seats in their parliament and winning the popular vote by a margin of 53% to 37%, with the remainder of the vote going to lesser parties. Hungarians put us to shame with an 80% voter turnout, adding to the repudiation of Orban.

Some pundits believe that Vance’s campaign appearances actually backfired. Vance had publicly told Orban that “(the) president loves you, and so do I” and issued a Christian nationalist challenge to the Hungarian people: “Will you stand for Western Civilization and for the God of our fathers?”

Orban had taken over much of Hungary’s media and championed an autocratic governing style that he called “illiberal democracy.” Within the European community, he worked to block aid to Ukraine and was very supportive of Vladimir Putin. Orban’s right-wing American allies repeatedly invited him to address the Conservative Political Action Committee.

While there is considerable hostility and anxiety toward immigrants in Hungary, as is the case in much of Europe, the Hungarian economy has been sputtering, and that may have contributed to Orban’s landslide defeat.

But we should be concerned about our leaders meddling in the internal politics of other sovereign countries. Vance’s campaign appearances for Orban and the Fidesz Party was not an isolated incident. Earlier in his term, Vance had campaigned for the neo-Nazi party (AfD) in Germany, and Trump had conditioned an aid package which bailed out Argentina from insolvency on an election victory for their right-wing strongman Javier Milei.

Maybe it says something that Trump’s only allies on the world stage, including Putin, are confirmed fascists. We are currently estranged from most of our traditional allies, including Canada, the United Kingdom and France. Trump is attacking Pope Leo, despite his Chicago roots, because the pope had the unmitigated gall to speak out against our war in Iran.

Trump has recently attacked the NATO alliance, ridiculed our European allies for not supporting our ill-considered war against Iran, and threatened to take the frozen (but melting) island of Greenland from our NATO ally Denmark by force.

It should be noted that Harry Truman did not campaign for our wartime ally (and hero) Winston Churchill when he was challenged and ousted from power right after World War II.

Churchill’s American admirers may have lamented his political defeat, but they recognized that whether he stayed in power was a decision for the British. We can hope that the election results in Hungary show that Europe is united against Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, and also that they send a message to our administration that it should not interfere in the internal politics of other countries.

They may not react favorably to our pressure in any case. 

Jay Davis of Rapid City is a retired lawyer and a regular contributor to The South Dakota Standard. 

Photo: Orban during a 2025 visit to the White House, public domain, wikimedia commons

The South Dakota Standard is offered freely and is supported by our readers. We have no political or commercial sponsorship. If you'd like to help us continue our mission to advance independent political and social commentary, you can do so by clicking on the "Donate" button that's on the sidebar to your right.

Follow us and comment on X and Bluesky