Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stood earlier than a captivated viewers of conservative activists from the U.S. and laid out his imaginative and prescient for American politics.
The Western media, he declared at a Could 2022 particular assembly of the Conservative Political Motion Committee in Budapest, are “the root of the problem.” The important thing to conservatives reclaiming energy in the US? “Have your own media.”
Orbán spoke from expertise, having systematically reshaped Hungary’s political panorama since 2010, largely by reining within the unbiased press and changing it with a loyal media equipment. His recommendation, although at odds with democratic values, was warmly embraced by his American admirers, together with conservative journalists, podcasters and political leaders.
Now, three years later, one explicit political determine, President Donald Trump, seems to have taken Orbán’s phrases to coronary heart, mimicking Orbán’s early actions and transferring swiftly to dictate the phrases of his personal protection.
A protest by Hungarian civil society in opposition to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s authorities on Oct. 23, 2012.
Picture by Dagmar Gester/ullstein bild through Getty Photos
New phrases for the press
In his first 100 days, Trump asserted new management over the press, beginning with those that cowl him each day.
In February 2025, his administration barred The Related Press from the Oval Workplace for utilizing “Gulf of Mexico” slightly than adopting the president’s newly named “Gulf of America.”
Quickly after, Trump’s staff stripped the White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation of its authority to resolve which retailers are within the presidential press pool, a job journalists have held for over a century.
Now, Trump has escalated these calls for, calling on the Federal Communications Fee to punish CBS and revoke its license over a “60 Minutes” section he didn’t like. He declared the community’s protection “unlawful and illegal.”
From sidelining reporters to in search of authorized retribution, Trump’s actions mirror not a sequence of remoted strikes however a coordinated effort at media overhaul – one aligned together with his broader try and restructure nationwide establishments.
As a scholar who research propaganda fashions and narrative management, I imagine the doubtless supply for this media overhaul playbook is Orbán.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban waves as he walks onto the stage to talk on the Conservative Political Motion Convention in Dallas on Aug. 4, 2022.
AP Picture/LM Otero
The Orbán mannequin
I’ve carefully adopted how Orbán consolidated management over the Hungarian press as prime minister, permitting him to undertaking the phantasm of media consensus and widespread help. His marketing campaign started promptly after returning to energy in 2010.
This was not merely an effort to mood criticism; it was the opening transfer in a broader technique to remake Hungarian media.
The legislation drew sharp condemnation, most notably from journalists but additionally from the European Union. When Orbán later addressed the European Parliament, members protested by taping their mouths shut and holding indicators that learn “censored.”
To his critics, Orbán claimed that Hungary’s “media regulation system” had “collapsed” and that it was his authorities’s obligation to rebuild it. However for the press, this was no reconstruction.
As one Hungarian journalist put it, “Orbán saw the media as a battlefield; occupied by enemy troops and crowded with territories for potential expansion.”
Oligarchs take over media
The true takeover got here by means of a coordinated wave of media acquisitions.
Many once-independent retailers have been quickly resurrected as pro-Orbán media.
By 2018, the consolidation was full.
In a show of political choreography, practically 500 privately owned media retailers have been donated to a central holding firm: KESMA – the Central European Press and Media Basis. Run by Orbán’s allies, KESMA now dominates Hungary’s media panorama, delivering a uniform stream of pro-Orbán content material, selling what he calls his “illiberal” agenda.
Orbán’s marketing campaign provided a Twenty first-century mannequin for media management – one rooted not in overt censorship however in narrative saturation. Whereas some unbiased media stay, the huge refrain of pro-Orbán media now drowns out their dissent.
It’s a mannequin that has drawn admiration from right-wing figures around the globe.
American media personalities resembling Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson have traveled to Budapest to satisfy with Orbán and examine his playbook, whereas the Hungarian chief has grow to be a star on the U.S. conservative circuit, talking at Conservative Political Motion Committee gatherings and forging ties with the MAGA motion and Trump.
After becoming a member of him on the marketing campaign path final summer time, Orbán boasted of his “deep involvement” in serving to form Trump’s upcoming agenda.
Importing the playbook
Reporter Brian Glenn from Actual America’s Voice asks questions flattering to President Trump throughout an Oval Workplace press convention on Feb. 28, 2025.
Trying again on the president’s first 100 days, it’s clear that Orbán’s ways at the moment are surfacing in Trump’s second time period.
The place Orbán handed a media legislation to penalize imbalanced reporting, Trump now calls sure protection unlawful, and his administration has begun investigations into no less than one media outlet. He has additionally begun to sideline retailers that defy his agenda, as his press workplace continues denying entry to wire providers resembling Reuters and Bloomberg.
The place Orbán’s allies acquired and repurposed unfavorable media, Trump has discovered highly effective media companions of his personal, resembling Elon Musk. Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, now X, mirrors the technique of Orbán’s billionaire allies, permitting the tech mogul to successfully rework the platform right into a megaphone for Trump’s agenda.
Lastly, simply as Orbán constructed an enormous loyalist media community, Trump allies are increasing a parallel MAGA media universe designed to amplify and protect his message.
That equipment is now a fixture of the White Home. As unbiased retailers resembling AP and Reuters are shuffled out, a brand new crop of pro-Trump voices are ushered in. Amongst them: Steve Bannon’s Conflict Room, Actual America’s Voice and Lindell TV, based by MyPillow CEO and Trump advocate Mike Lindell. These networks don’t simply cowl the administration − they have a good time it.
Brian Glenn, a reporter with Actual America’s Voice, was lately granted the primary query in an Oval Workplace press occasion. He used it to reward Trump’s accomplishments and ballot numbers: “All of your agenda that you ran on, you’re accomplishing that. You’ve got the support of the American people. … If you can comment on the latest Harvard poll, I’d appreciate that.”
At one other briefing, a Lindell TV correspondent requested press secretary Karoline Leavitt if she might share Trump’s health plan, remarking that he seemed “healthier than ever,” and including, “I’m sure everyone in this room can agree.”
Settlement is exactly the purpose. By recasting the media in his picture, Trump is constructing a press pool that may champion his message. It’s Orbán’s phantasm of consensus, and that is simply the opening act.
