When President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, he sought closer ties with Europe’s right wing as part of a broader push to reshape the international order. But the widening Iran war has increasingly unsettled many of the same nationalist factions, Associated Press reported, as relationships that once appeared mutually reinforcing have shown signs of strain and open backlash.
The political shift has played out amid a fragile ceasefire in place with Iran, with several European leaders signaling that they do not share Trump’s approach. The AP report said Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Hungary, including campaigning for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has highlighted how the Hungary leader has stood out even as other European far-right figures move away from the Trump agenda.
The European break with Washington has also been framed as part of a broader reaction to Trump’s threats earlier this year involving NATO ally Denmark and Greenland. On Wednesday, the report said Trump linked the two issues in a social media message that complained that NATO was not helping when it was needed and warned it would not be there again, adding: “REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”
In the same reporting, Italy’s Meloni declined to let the United States use an air base in Sicily to launch attacks on Iran. The report also said France’s Marine Le Pen characterized Trump’s war goals as “erratic.” In Germany, the AP said the head of Alternative for Germany called for American troops to leave their bases in the country, underscoring how Trump-linked support among European nationalists has failed to translate into unified backing for the Iran campaign.
Against that backdrop, Orban faces an election this weekend, with the AP reporting that his long-standing connection to Trump could insulate him from some backlash affecting other countries. Charles Kupchan, a Georgetown University professor and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the AP that even if Orban gets a “blessing from Donald Trump,” it can cut both ways: “Getting a blessing from Donald Trump is now a mixed blessing.”
Kupchan’s caution fits a broader pattern described in the report: analysts say European far-right parties have built political staying power that does not depend on American influence. The AP report quoted Kupchan saying Trump’s effort to create a transnational movement could affect the margins, but that the main reasons some parties prosper have “little to do with Trump and more to do with national factors,” including a wider environment in which incumbents face political costs.
For Orban, the relationship with Trump has become a central part of his political messaging. The AP report said Orban has sought to convince voters that his close ties—also including ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin—make him uniquely able to represent Hungary’s interests abroad. The report said Orban has played up Trump’s praise of him to his base and campaigned for reelection by assuring Hungarians that his alliance with the Trump administration is a guarantee of security and prosperity.
The report also said Orban has tried to limit direct criticism of Trump, pointing to an interview with the conservative British broadcaster GB News last month in which Orban said, “the question is whether (Trump) has started a war or a peace,” and added: “It hasn’t (been) decided yet, historians will make a decision on that,” while warning that “It’s too early to say” how the strikes would be judged.
Orban’s campaign push with Vance comes as Hungarian political observers question whether the association will help. The AP reported that Vance, while stumping for Orban, criticized Orbán critics in the European Union for what he called “foreign interference” in Hungary’s election, even as he discussed what he described as a “fragile truce” in the Iran war during an appearance at an elite higher education institution. The report said Vance praised the school for trying “to build up the foundations of Western civilization,” and said the institution has received generous funding from Orban’s government and is run by the prime minister’s political director.
Mario Bikarsku, a senior Europe analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, told the AP that Vance’s visit could produce the opposite of the intended effect, saying, “Vance’s visit could have the opposite effect on Orbán’s popularity than the one intended.”