Vice President JD Vance this week defended his trip to Hungary to support outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, saying that he had expected the European leader to face a tough reelection and that the administration wanted to reciprocate the support he had shown Washington over his years in office.

Orbán suffered a decisive defeat over the weekend, losing to the center-right Péter Magyar. He had served as prime minister since 2010 and previously held the post from 1998-2002. His tenure saw Hungary cultivate close ties with both the United States and Russia while remaining skeptical of the European Union.

“We did it because he’s one of the few European leaders we’ve seen who has been willing to stand up to the bureaucracy of Brussels,” Vance said on Fox News. “We didn’t go because we expected Viktor Orbán to cruise to an election victory. We went because it was the right thing to do to stand behind a person who had stood by us for a very long time.”

The Hungarian leader has long been an ally of President Donald Trump and was one of only a few world leaders to maintain his support for the Republican after he lost reelection in 2020. He has further supported the growth of CPAC Hungary with the goal of fostering closer ties between American and Hungarian conservative figures.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.