Hungarian High Minister Viktor Orbán stood ahead of a captivated target audience of conservative activists from the U.S. and laid out his imaginative and prescient for American politics.
The Western media, he declared at a Would possibly 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 USA? “Have your own media.”
Orbán spoke from revel in, having systematically reshaped Hungary’s political panorama since 2010, in large part by means of reining within the autonomous press and changing it with a devoted media equipment. His recommendation, although at odds with democratic values, was once warmly embraced by means of his American admirers, together with conservative reporters, podcasters and political leaders.
Now, 3 years later, one explicit political determine, President Donald Trump, seems to have taken Orbán’s phrases to center, mimicking Orbán’s early movements and shifting hastily to dictate the phrases of his personal protection.
A protest by means of Hungarian civil society towards High Minister Viktor Orban’s executive on Oct. 23, 2012.
Picture by means of Dagmar Gester/ullstein bild by way of Getty Photographs
New phrases for the clicking
In his first 100 days, Trump asserted new keep watch over over the clicking, beginning with those that quilt him day-to-day.
In February 2025, his management barred The Related Press from the Oval Administrative center for the usage of “Gulf of Mexico” somewhat than adopting the president’s newly named “Gulf of America.”
Quickly after, Trump’s crew stripped the White Space Correspondents’ Affiliation of its authority to come to a decision which retailers are within the presidential press pool, a task reporters have held for over a century.
Now, Trump has escalated the ones calls for, calling at 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 newshounds to in search of prison retribution, Trump’s movements replicate now not a chain of remoted strikes however a coordinated effort at media overhaul – one aligned together with his broader try to restructure nationwide establishments.
As a pupil who research propaganda fashions and narrative keep watch over, I imagine the most likely supply for this media overhaul playbook is Orbán.
Hungarian High Minister Viktor Orban waves as he walks onto the degree to talk on the Conservative Political Motion Convention in Dallas on Aug. 4, 2022.
AP Picture/LM Otero
The Orbán fashion
I’ve intently adopted how Orbán consolidated keep watch over over the Hungarian press as high minister, permitting him to mission the semblance of media consensus and standard give a boost to. His marketing campaign started promptly after returning to energy in 2010.
This was once now not simply an effort to mood complaint; it was once the hole transfer in a broader method to remake Hungarian media.
The legislation drew sharp condemnation, maximum significantly from reporters but additionally from the Eu Union. When Orbán later addressed the Eu Parliament, individuals protested by means of taping their mouths close and conserving indicators that learn “censored.”
To his critics, Orbán claimed that Hungary’s “media regulation system” had “collapsed” and that it was once his executive’s responsibility to rebuild it. However for the clicking, this was once 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 actual takeover got here via a coordinated wave of media acquisitions.
Many once-independent retailers had been quickly resurrected as pro-Orbán media.
Through 2018, the consolidation was once whole.
In a show of political choreography, just about 500 privately owned media retailers had been donated to a central conserving corporate: KESMA – the Central Eu Press and Media Basis. Run by means of Orbán’s allies, KESMA now dominates Hungary’s media panorama, handing over a uniform move of pro-Orbán content material, selling what he calls his “illiberal” schedule.
Orbán’s marketing campaign introduced a Twenty first-century fashion for media keep watch over – one rooted now not in overt censorship however in narrative saturation. Whilst some autonomous media stay, the huge refrain of pro-Orbán media now drowns out their dissent.
It’s a fashion that has drawn admiration from right-wing figures around the globe.
American media personalities akin to Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson have traveled to Budapest to fulfill with Orbán and find out about his playbook, whilst the Hungarian chief has turn into a celebrity at 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 at the marketing campaign path final summer time, Orbán boasted of his “deep involvement” in serving to form Trump’s upcoming schedule.
Uploading the playbook
Reporter Brian Glenn from Actual The usa’s Voice asks questions flattering to President Trump right through an Oval Administrative center press convention on Feb. 28, 2025.
Taking a look again on the president’s first 100 days, it’s transparent that Orbán’s ways are actually surfacing in Trump’s 2nd time period.
The place Orbán handed a media legislation to penalize imbalanced reporting, Trump now calls sure protection unlawful, and his management has begun investigations into a minimum of one media outlet. He has additionally begun to sideline retailers that defy his schedule, as his press place of job continues denying get right of entry to to twine products and services akin to Reuters and Bloomberg.
The place Orbán’s allies got and repurposed adverse media, Trump has discovered tough media companions of his personal, akin to Elon Musk. Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, now X, mirrors the tactic of Orbán’s billionaire allies, permitting the tech rich person to successfully turn out to be the platform right into a megaphone for Trump’s schedule.
In the end, simply as Orbán built a limiteless loyalist media community, Trump allies are increasing a parallel MAGA media universe designed to enlarge and protect his message.
That equipment is now a fixture of the White Space. As autonomous retailers akin to AP and Reuters are shuffled out, a brand new crop of pro-Trump voices are ushered in. Amongst them: Steve Bannon’s Battle Room, Actual The usa’s Voice and Lindell TV, based by means of MyPillow CEO and Trump suggest Mike Lindell. Those networks don’t simply quilt the management − they have a good time it.
Brian Glenn, a reporter with Actual The usa’s Voice, was once not too long ago granted the primary query in an Oval Administrative center press tournament. 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 any other briefing, a Lindell TV correspondent requested press secretary Karoline Leavitt if she may just proportion Trump’s health plan, remarking that he appeared “healthier than ever,” and including, “I’m sure everyone in this room can agree.”
Settlement is strictly the purpose. Through recasting the media in his symbol, Trump is development a press pool that can champion his message. It’s Orbán’s phantasm of consensus, and that is simply the hole act.
