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 Action Committee in Budapest, are “the foundation of the issue.” The important thing to conservatives reclaiming energy in the US? “Have your own media.”
Orbán spoke from expertise, having systematically reshaped Hungary’s political panorama since 2010, largely by reining in the independent press and changing it with a loyal media apparatus. 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 explicit 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.
Photo by Dagmar Gester/ullstein bild via Getty Images
New phrases for the press
In his first 100 days, Trump asserted new management over the press, beginning with those that cowl him day by day.
In February 2025, his administration barred The Associated 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 House Correspondents’ Association of its authority to resolve which shops are within the presidential press pool, a job journalists have held for over a century.
Then got here a sweeping executive order in mid-March to dismantle government-funded information companies, together with Voice of America, the worldwide broadcasting service. That very same day, Trump went to the Division of Justice for a televised tackle, the place he declared a few of his destructive press protection was not simply unfair however “totally illegal.” The president accused choose media shops of working in “total 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 instructed the Division of Justice workers, turning acquainted grievances into what seemed 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 “unlawful and illegal.”
From sidelining reporters to searching for authorized retribution, Trump’s actions mirror not a collection of remoted strikes however a coordinated effort at media overhaul – one aligned together with his broader try and restructure national institutions.
As a scholar who research propaganda models and narrative management, I consider the probably supply for this media overhaul playbook is Orbán.
AP Photo/LM Otero
The Orbán mannequin
I’ve intently adopted how Orbán consolidated control over the Hungarian press as prime minister, permitting him to challenge 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 solely by his ruling get together, was given authority to high quality 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 responsibility to rebuild it. However for the press, this was 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 enlargement.”
Oligarchs take over media
The true takeover got here by way of a coordinated wave of media acquisitions.
Like items on a chessboard, Orbán-friendly oligarchs scooped up major newspapers, TV channels and radio stations. His rich allies have been systematic: They fired editorial teams, changed crucial voices with loyal ones and infrequently triggered mass resignations from journalists unwilling to toe the get together line.
Many once-independent outlets were soon resurrected as pro-Orbán media.
By 2018, the consolidation was full.
In a show of political choreography, practically 500 privately owned media shops have been donated to a central holding firm: KESMA – the Central European Press and Media Foundation. 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 “illiberal” agenda.
Orbán’s marketing campaign provided 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 akin to Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson have traveled to Budapest to satisfy with Orbán and research his playbook, whereas the Hungarian chief has grow to be a star on the U.S. conservative circuit, talking at Conservative Political Action Committee gatherings and forging ties with the MAGA movement 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 certain coverage illegal, and his administration has begun investigations into not less than one media outlet. He has additionally begun to sideline outlets that defy his agenda, as his press workplace continues denying entry to wire services akin to Reuters and Bloomberg.
The place Orbán’s allies acquired and repurposed unfavorable media, Trump has discovered highly effective media companions of his personal, akin to Elon Musk. Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, now X, mirrors the technique of Orbán’s billionaire allies, allowing the tech mogul to effectively transform 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 akin to AP and Reuters are shuffled out, a brand new crop of pro-Trump voices are ushered in. Amongst them: Steve Bannon’s War Room, Real America’s Voice and Lindell TV, based by MyPillow CEO and Trump advocate Mike Lindell. These networks don’t simply cowl the administration − they rejoice 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 of your agenda that you ran on, you’re accomplishing that. You’ve received the assist of the American folks. … Should you can touch upon the newest Harvard ballot, I’d admire 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 appeared “more healthy than ever,” and including, “I’m sure everyone in 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.
