White House Warns of Democratic Backsliding after Hungarian Election
Election “Lacked Irregularities Necessary for a Credible Result”
By László Compliance, Illiberal Democracy Correspondent
Budapest, Hungary — President Trump branded longtime ally Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a “loser” Monday for “conceding so readily” and “failing to call for a full recount” after Peter Magyar’s center-right Tisza Party won a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s parliament.
Trump called Hungary’s 77% turnout “highly suspicious” and “statistically inconsistent” for a healthy democracy with restrictive voter-ID and mail-in-ballot laws. He claimed Orbán’s numbers had shot up recently, though later clarified “those were gas prices.”
“We didn’t defund the National Endowment for Democracy for this,” raged Stephen Miller. “If this can happen in a country where the prime minister controlled the media for 16 years, nobody is safe. At least without Voice of America, Russians won’t know.”
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment about international affairs, noting this fell outside the agency’s current remit.
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