Vice President JD Vance appeared a bit out of his league during a trip to Hungary to campaign for its struggling far-right leader Viktor Orban, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and American President Donald Trump.
In an unusual move for any American presidential administration, Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, arrived in Budapest on Tuesday, April 7, to try to shore up support for Orban in what’s turning into a tight re-election race and even a potential loss for the authoritarian leader. But a leaked phone call between Orban and Putin from last fall and an awkward press conference undercut Vance’s message and made him look out of sync.
During the call between Putin and the Hungarian president in October 2025, Orban offered to help Putin win his four-year-old war against Ukraine “in any way,” according to a transcript of the call released by Bloomberg.
“In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service,” Orban told Putin.
The Hungarian strongman also made a reference to a European fable, telling Putin he considered himself the mouse helping a trapped lion after the feline let the rodent go, which apparently greatly amused both men, the Daily Beast reported.
Also, during the call, critics say Orban groveled at Putin’s feet, telling the Russian dictator he hoped to hold a summit in Budapest, possibly involving the Trump administration, in a show of support for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The meeting never happened.
Making matters worse for Vance, Trump left him out of the loop on his escalating bombing attacks on Iran, embarrassingly forcing Vance to learn about the latest developments from a reporter and a cellphone message.
Trump gave Tehran an ultimatum in a Truth Social post Tuesday morning, the latest in a series of warnings to the Islamic Republic threatening to blow up civilian infrastructure if the country’s leaders don’t agree to a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical and narrow waterway out of the Persian Gulf which carries 20 percent of the world’s oil every day.
Iran, which controls the strait, has blocked it to much traffic for weeks, only allowing certain ships to pass through. The closure has sparked a huge spike in the price of oil and gas and crippled American farmers who depend on fertilizer that is shipped through the channel.
Trump threatened in the post, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
The president gave Tehran until 8 p.m. Eastern Time on April 7 to agree to a deal ending the war and to reopen the Strait. The coercion continued even as the United States and Israel continued bombing Iran in the hours before Trump’s post. Israel announced it had bombed a petrochemical plant in southern Iran, while the U.S. forces hit Iran’s key Kharg Island target as well as more infrastructure.
In a previous post, Trump had threatened the new Iranian regime with bombing the country’s infrastructure, including power plants and water desalination facilities, “back to the stone ages,” if Iran did not comply with his demands.
During a joint press conference with Orban, Vance was asked if he had any new information on negotiations with Iran and whether he believed a deal could be reached by the deadline.
Vance seemed confused and appeared to freeze before quickly recovering and admitting he had no new information, but then he said something that stunned reporters and others monitoring the situation.
“So, you asked if there’s new information, and I don’t, unless I have a text message from Steve,” Vance replied while checking his phone.
“I do have a text message from Steve Witkoff,” a surprised Vance said then suggested, “Would you like to know the subject of this message?”
He quickly changed his mind.
“But no, I need to read it first before I talk about it, but here’s, here’s – What time is it in the United States right now,” he suddenly asked before saying, “OK, that makes sense.”
Witkoff is a longtime friend of Trump, a New York real estate mogul and Trump’s special envoy who has been handling foreign diplomacy and negotiations for the Trump administration in the Middle East.
Social media descended into a frenzy of criticism over Vance and his attempts to influence a foreign nation’s elections.
“Guess Vance didn’t see his boyfriend’s post this morning about killing an entire civilization. STFU JD and go home. You were not elected to interfere in other countries’ elections,” this X user proclaimed.
Another wondered, “Why are we paying for this?”
“It gets worse Vance is just defending an authoritarian traitor to Europe and Ukraine,Most people are sick of him and Trump defending dictators ,what an insult to freedom fighting people who believe in democracy In Europe and the world for that matter,” another user wrote.
Orban, who’s been in power for 16 years, has presided over some of the worst inflation in Hungary in recent memory, spiking close to 26 percent in 2023 as his cronies and family members enrich themselves, according to news reports. Hungary is holding its presidential elections on April 12.
