Transcript: Vice President JD Vance’s Speech in Budapest – April 7, 2026

When strange activists came to tell you to erase your heritage, you said no. And when a war erupted in your neighborhood, you were kind and generous. You opened your neighborhoods, your homes, and your hospitals. But you never forgot the needs of your own people and why, to Hungary, Hungarians must always come first.

And for all these reasons, the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, and the American people — we admire you. And we want you to make a decision about your future with no outside forces pressuring you or telling you what to do.

I’m not telling you exactly who to vote for. But what I am telling you is that the bureaucrats in Brussels — those people should not be listened to. You should listen to your hearts, listen to your souls, and listen to the sovereignty of the Hungarian people.

Unlike some of the leadership of Brussels, I’m not threatening you or telling you that we’re going to withhold funds to which you’re legally entitled. You will make the decision about Hungary’s future, just as my fellow Americans will make the decision about America’s future.

So I come here not in the spirit of telling you what to do. I come here in the spirit of friendship to offer a few observations about our shared civilization and how we can advance it together.

A Shared Threat from Within

You have advanced that civilization boldly in recent years, and you have done so with Viktor Orbán at the helm of a proud Hungarian nation. But boldness, we know this, boldness attracts naysayers, and that is something I want to talk about for a bit — a shared threat from within that both of our nations face.

I speak, of course, of a far-left ideology given quarter in university circles, in the media, and in our entertainment industry, and increasingly among bureaucrats on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, its followers don’t see Western society as flawed, yet worthy of reform. Instead, they view the very foundations of our shared civilization as illegitimate.

In Western history, they don’t see a proud tradition. They see only injustice. In our borders, they see exclusion and racism. In Christianity, they see not liberation, but oppression. And in the family, they see constraint.

Their most radical members, of course, tear down monuments to our national heroes, or throw buckets of fake blood on precious artworks in museums. They stage assassinations of law enforcement officers. They set fire to churches. They declare they’re never going to have kids lest they increase their carbon footprint.

And we, of course, we see something different, my friends. We defend our borders because we know that it’s the most vulnerable among us who suffer when our streets are given over to chaos and violence. Some of them call themselves feminists, pretending they care about women. Yet it is their policies that have seen an explosion of migrant crime and sexual assault against the very women they claim to protect.

We believe in energy security because we don’t want the least of us to be unable to afford to heat their homes or to drive themselves to work. They say they care a lot about corruption. They take it very seriously. But they turn a blind eye to the corruption of Brussels, which has seen bureaucrats become millionaires by threatening and cajoling the sovereignty of the people across this beautiful continent.

## The Question of America and Europe

Now, you all know this. Much has been made about our administration. The European press asks constantly, “Do Trump and Vance, do they have something against Europe?” Let me be clear. We love Europe. We love it. How can we not? We were birthed from this continent, the United States of America. We love its people. We love its culture. We love its beautiful architecture. And we love the amazing history of this continent.

But because we love this culture and these peoples, we reject the faceless bureaucrats who would drive your energy costs through the roof and open your country to millions of unvetted foreigners in the name of progress.

## Real Progress in Hungary

And in Hungary, I actually see real progress under a man named Viktor Orbán. I see a trading partner who will bring in record investment from the United States of America. We’ve invested more in Hungary than we ever have in our history. I see clean streets where people of different faiths and tourists of all nationalities can enjoy a drink or a nice walk in safety and security. I see a government that invests in its own people, in promoting families, creating good jobs, and building an education system that teaches love of country rather than hatred of civilization.

And most of all, my friends, because I’m the Vice President of the United States, I see what the bureaucrats hide from many of you. Energy costs are higher in almost every country in Europe than they are in Hungary. That’s because Viktor Orbán has fought for energy security while most European political leaders have not.

## They Sneer at Normal People

I see the way those same leaders sneer at the normal, God-fearing people of Hungary. I see how they call the people of Hungary and America backwards for wanting cheap electricity bills. I see the way they look down on peacemakers like Viktor, a man who has done more than any leader in Europe to bring about a successful resolution to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

I see the way they scoff at European and American peoples who want job security and control of migration. And most of all, I see that those who hate Europe the most — who hate its borders, its energy independence, the people who hate its Christian heritage — they hate one man above all others, and his name is Viktor Orbán. And if they hate him, it means he’s on your side.

And to them, I’m going to say, the reason you hate Viktor is because he is for the people of Hungary. And I stand here today because President Trump and I stand with Europe. We stand for sovereignty. We stand for Hungary. And we stand shoulder to shoulder with the man who has done more to defend those values than anyone else, Viktor Orbán.

## Civilization Must Be Defended

You know, the leaders of this country, perhaps more so than any other across Europe, understand that Western civilization, so despised by the left, is not something that’s self-sustaining. We can’t sit on our hands and expect that everything is going to be fine. Our civilization — we’ve got to work at it. We’ve got to renew it. We’ve got to defend it.

The people in this room understand that sovereignty and national identity are not problems — they are a necessary part of the solution. And when one country protects its sovereignty, even a country of 10 million people in the heart of Europe, it raises uncomfortable questions for those who insist there is no alternative. There is an alternative, and it’s right here in Hungary. Think about this: if Hungary can secure its own borders, others can do the same thing.

And if they do not, if they fail to control migration, that is by choice. If Hungary can place its own workers first, there’s no reason that its neighbors can’t do the same. And when they do not, that too is a choice.

Viktor and this entire political leadership, they become a target of the bureaucrats because he shows that real sovereignty is possible. He shows you can be pro-Europe, you can be pro-America, and you can be pro-your own people, and he’s showing it in spades.

Defending the Ideas That Made Our Civilization

And you all know this, but we’re not just protecting our own people, the citizens of our respective countries, we’re protecting the ideas that allowed those people to flourish for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years.

We just celebrated Easter, of course, all of us, and for 2,000 years, our civilization has been shaped above all and beyond all by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. Built upon the laws of Moses and the laws of Rome, and that society has produced not oppression but the most free, tolerant, and prosperous societies in the history of humanity.

Concepts like God-given natural rights, a sense of duty to one’s neighbors, an obligation to protect the weak and the vulnerable, a belief in free will and individual conscience. No set of ideas has brought mankind closer to universal human dignity and flourishing — from those principles that founded our civilization, everything else flows. The way we pray, the way we form and raise our families, our sense of law and order, and the way we dispense justice.

These are truths rooted in scripture, but let’s be honest, not every society shares them. Because our civilization, while I believe it’s universally true, it has not been universally adopted. It is not the default state of human existence.

What’s Been Built Can Be Undone

The greatness of London, or Munich, or a picturesque village on Lake Balaton, it’s easier to take for granted when it’s the world you already live in. But that world didn’t spring from nowhere — it had to be built. Every brick of that beautiful Parliament building here, every span of bridge across the Danube, every law, every custom, all belong to work of generations built over time.

But what’s been built over generations can be undone in a single lifespan. That means that what our ancestors built — we’re proud of it and we love them — we must protect.

I think this audience, this group of people, uniquely understands the stakes. Because the story of Hungary — I saw this when I was here a few years ago, I’ve seen it again today — is of a people who have repeatedly prevailed over those who had erased their sovereignty. And in that process, those people tried to erase what makes Hungary so special to begin with.

The Lessons of Communism

Now most recently, of course, that came in the form of communism — a lie that took the noble pursuit of equality and claimed it could be enforced by gunpoint. That’s no coincidence, you all know this better than I do, that once in power, the communists in Hungary set about dismantling every institution that gave this great nation its character.

They shuttered churches, they rewrote history, they framed 1848 not as a national revolution, but as a mere prelude to a Marxist struggle. And they didn’t do it all at once, they did it piece by piece. What they themselves called “slicing the salami” — removing one by one the institutions that anchored Hungarian life.

The Spirit of King St. Stephen

But ultimately, thanks be to God, the spirit of King St. Stephen prevailed in this nation. And today what I’m asking is very simple — I want us all to renew that spirit together.

For again, we see sovereignty challenged in Hungary. Again, we see faceless bureaucrats in faraway countries telling you how to live, how to pray, how to speak, and how to govern yourselves. But you have a choice. Do you bend the knee to tyranny, or do you proudly stand with St. Stephen and choose a real leader this weekend?

We’re talking about a leader who feels real pride in this place, in its history, in its culture, and in its way of life.

A leader who will fight to preserve those things while also building a better future. Because the real divide in our time is much more fundamental than partisan labels or specific policies. It’s fundamentally between those who believe in the future and those who do not.

## The Real Divide: Belief in the Future

Across the West, we’ve got a small band of radicals. People who do not believe in the future, and are often the very people who so wish to govern us. It’s kind of weird. If they don’t believe in the future, why do they want a life in politics?

If they speak not of renewal for our nations, but management. They’re not trying to build a great future, they’re trying to manage the decline of the greatest civilization in the world. Some of them say things like, “Human beings are no more than pollution upon the earth.” They look at our cultures and our borders, they look at the very idea of a nation and ask how we can get rid of them.

Every position, I believe, flows from this fundamental error. They reject mothers and motherhood, fathers and fatherhood in the name of liberation. They condemn children to mutilation and sterilization in the name of gender care. And they practice institutional murder in the name of “end of life planning.” And if you dare speak up about it, they will fight using the modern tools of social media to silence you through censorship.

## A Sacred Duty to Protect Life

We understand that we have a sacred duty to protect life, to defend the value of our people’s hard work, to invest in our workers, our families, and our industry, and to make it easier to build a life that is affordable for all of our citizens. We are committed to our future because we are committed to the very idea of our people. We’re committed to the idea of life itself because it is a gift from God and we never forget it.

Now that’s why I’m here, ladies and gentlemen. That’s why President Trump sent me to stand here with Viktor today, something I’m very proud to do, because I believe our nations are incredibly capable of greatness when we come together.

Our work is not zero sum. Indeed, it cannot be because our goal is always to build a better life for our people. These bureaucrats, they’ve given us a false choice. Think about this. They tell us that the options are between isolation and globalist integration. They have framed their project as the inevitable future, even as their very institutions stagnate and crumble.

But we know there’s a better way. Cooperation between countries with shared values and parallel destinies — that is the story of Hungary and America, and we’re going to keep fighting for it.

## A Longer Hungarian-American Friendship

A lot of you may not know this, but this is the story of a much longer Hungarian-American friendship. When my own country sought its independence 250 years ago, almost to the month, it was a Hungarian soldier by the name of Michael Kovacs who helped found the first American cavalry units, ultimately giving his life in our struggle for independence against the British Empire.

A generation later, Americans welcomed Lajos Kossuth, the hero of 1848 and the father of Hungarian democracy. Now, Kossuth was greeted in the United States like a rock star — much better than a politician. His arrival and the more general cause of Hungarian independence captured the imagination of our young nation. He received the distinction of being the second foreigner ever in our nation’s history, after Lafayette, to address a joint meeting of Congress, and his bust stands in the United States Capitol to this very day.

Now, during that trip — I didn’t realize this until a few days ago — but during that trip to the United States, Kossuth visited my home state of Ohio to make his case for Hungarian independence. We have some Ohio fans over here — that’s good. Before the state legislature in Columbus, Ohio, he declared, “The spirit of our age is democracy — all for the people and all by the people, nothing about the people without the people.” My nation.

He went on, “My nation will rise, called to resurrection by the eternal principles of the law of nature and of nature’s God.” Even then, this great Hungarian patriot was aware of the intimate link between sovereignty, between self-government, and between our divine creator. And I’m proud to say that according to the history books, the part of the country that gave him the proudest reception and the biggest reception during his entire time in America was my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

You have to imagine this, and you tell these stories and you think, how can the bureaucrats think that we’re not capable of self-government and choosing our own destiny? Because when Kossuth came to Cincinnati during his tour of Ohio, there were railroad tracks lined with citizens delighted to behold Hungary’s great freedom fighter. Reportedly, 100,000 of them showed up just at his one stop in my hometown.

## The Affection Was Mutual

And the affection — I’ve got to say, I’m a little biased here — the affection was mutual. The people of Cincinnati, Kossuth said, “changed a wilderness of primitive forests into an immense city of which there exists a prediction that by the year of our Lord 2000, it will be the greatest city in the world.” And no offense to Budapest, but I think he’s right about that.

But it tells you something very real, that when Kossuth looked at the United States of America, he didn’t see something radically different — he saw something familiar. In our nation, he recognized the same forces at work that were shaping Hungary. People building something of their own, out of wilderness, with purpose, conviction, and a deep belief in where they came from and what they were called to do.

And standing in Cincinnati, he saw something in America that he believed was just the beginning. “The West,” he explained, “there you can see the cradle of a newborn humanity.” It was true then and it’s still true today.

## Building, Renewing, and Passing It Down

But America, like Hungary, was not a place just of rest. It was built around the idea of creating and renewing. And those early Americans, like the heroes of your own nation, took that inheritance and they shaped it into their own. They added to it. They fortified it. They passed it down to their children and to their grandchildren, who then did the same — with the expectation that generations later, those grandchildren would carry it forward.

On his fateful trip to America, Kossuth announced that Hungary was to become — and this is perhaps my favorite quote — “the cornerstone of national independence on the European continent.” This guy was a prophet. Kossuth called this the cornerstone of independence, the cornerstone of sovereignty on the European continent, and though he didn’t live to see it become so, I declare that prophecy is true today in 2026.

## A Prophecy Fulfilled

Now under Viktor Orbán’s leadership, you have held on to the civilizational goods that make a country worth living in in the first place — sovereignty, prosperity, history, a sense of national community, the redemptive nature of bringing new life and new families into the world. This is an awesome and difficult responsibility, because across much of the West, there’s a growing uncertainty about whether these things matter or whether they’re worth fighting for. But not here. You have stood up to the bureaucrats. You have stood up to the nihilists.

Now I wonder, will you do it again? Will you stand against the bureaucrats in Brussels? Will you stand for sovereignty and democracy? Will you stand for Western civilization? Will you stand for freedom, for truth, and for the God of our fathers? Then my friends, go to the polls this weekend, stand with Viktor Orbán, because he stands for you and he stands for all these things. God bless Hungary and God bless the United States of America. Thank you.

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