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 foundation of the issue.” The important thing to conservatives reclaiming energy in the USA? “Have your personal media.”
Orbán spoke from expertise, having systematically reshaped Hungary’s political panorama since 2010, largely by reining within the impartial 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 specific political determine, President Donald Trump, seems to have taken Orbán’s phrases to coronary heart, mimicking Orbán’s early actions and shifting swiftly to dictate the phrases of his personal protection.
Photograph by Dagmar Gester/ullstein bild by way of 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 shops are within the presidential press pool, a task journalists have held for over a century.
Then got here a sweeping govt order in mid-March to dismantle government-funded information businesses, together with Voice of America, the worldwide broadcasting service. That very same day, Trump went to the Division of Justice for a televised deal with, the place he declared a few of his unfavourable press protection was not simply unfair however “completely unlawful.” The president accused choose media shops of working in “whole coordination” to undermine him.
“These networks and these newspapers are actually no totally different than a extremely paid political operative and it has to cease, it needs to be unlawful,” Trump informed the Division of Justice employees, turning acquainted grievances into what appeared like a name for motion.
Now, Trump has escalated these calls for, calling on the Federal Communications Fee to punish CBS and revoke its license over a “60 Minutes” phase he didn’t like. He declared the community’s protection “illegal and unlawful.”
From sidelining reporters to in search of authorized retribution, Trump’s actions mirror not a collection of remoted strikes however a coordinated effort at media overhaul – one aligned along with his broader try and restructure nationwide establishments.
As a scholar who research propaganda fashions and narrative management, I consider the possible supply for this media overhaul playbook is Orbán.
AP Photograph/LM Otero
The Orbán mannequin
I’ve intently adopted how Orbán consolidated management over the Hungarian press as prime minister, permitting him to undertaking the phantasm of media consensus and widespread assist. His marketing campaign started promptly after returning to energy in 2010.
With the backing of a brand new parliamentary majority, Orbán enacted a sweeping Media Act in 2011 that granted the state broad oversight powers. That meant a newly fashioned Media Council, staffed totally by his ruling get together, was given authority to tremendous information shops for protection they deemed “unbalanced or immoral.”
This was not merely an effort to mood criticism; it was the opening transfer in a broader technique to remake Hungarian media.
The regulation drew sharp condemnation, most notably from journalists but in addition 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 noticed the media as a battlefield; occupied by enemy troops and crowded with territories for potential enlargement.”
Oligarchs take over media
The true takeover got here by a coordinated wave of media acquisitions.
Like items on a chessboard, Orbán-friendly oligarchs scooped up main newspapers, TV channels and radio stations. His rich allies have been systematic: They fired editorial groups, changed important voices with loyal ones and infrequently triggered mass resignations from journalists unwilling to toe the get together line.
Many once-independent shops have been quickly resurrected as pro-Orbán media.
By 2018, the consolidation was full.
In a show of political choreography, almost 500 privately owned media shops 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 “intolerant” agenda.
Orbán’s marketing campaign supplied a Twenty first-century mannequin for media management – one rooted not in overt censorship however in narrative saturation. Whereas some impartial 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 world wide.
American media personalities comparable to Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson have traveled to Budapest to fulfill with Orbán and examine his playbook, whereas the Hungarian chief has change into 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
Trying again on the president’s first 100 days, it’s clear that Orbán’s ways are actually surfacing in Trump’s second time period.
The place Orbán handed a media regulation to penalize imbalanced reporting, Trump now calls sure protection unlawful, and his administration has begun investigations into not less than one media outlet. He has additionally begun to sideline shops that defy his agenda, as his press workplace continues denying entry to wire companies comparable to Reuters and Bloomberg.
The place Orbán’s allies acquired and repurposed unfavorable media, Trump has discovered highly effective media companions of his personal, comparable to Elon Musk. Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, now X, mirrors the technique of Orbán’s billionaire allies, permitting the tech mogul to successfully remodel 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 defend his message.
That equipment is now a fixture of the White Home. As impartial shops comparable 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 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 fun 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 your agenda that you just ran on, you’re conducting that. You’ve obtained the assist of the American individuals. … If you happen to can touch upon the most recent Harvard ballot, I’d recognize 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 regarded “more healthy than ever,” and including, “I’m positive everybody on 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.
Supply hyperlink
