The Western mainstream media has had a tough week, spreading the wildest conspiracy theories without providing any substantive evidence. What links these stories is that they concern Hungary in one way or another, and are clearly intended to undermine Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government.
Let us begin in chronological order. On Tuesday, 9 December, US-based outlet Defense One circulated what it claimed was a ‘longer version’ of the recently published National Security Strategy of the Trump administration. While the original document had already provoked outrage in many European capitals for its harsh—but in fact realistic—assessment of the European Union’s current political and economic trajectory, the version published by Defense One is even more difficult for European leaders to digest.
According to Defense One’s alleged version of the NSS, Washington’s goal is to draw certain European countries away from the EU to form a closer alliance aimed at ‘Making Europe Great Again’. The states listed in this supposed strategy are Austria, Poland, Italy and Hungary. ‘Working from the premise that Europe is facing “civilizational erasure” because of its immigration policies and “censorship of free speech”, the NSS proposes to focus US relationships with European countries on a few nations with like-minded—right-wing, presumably—current administrations and movements,’ the outlet claims.
This so-called longer version also proposes creating a ‘new global leadership forum’—the Core 5 (C5)—consisting of the United States, China, Russia, India and Japan. This grouping would function parallel to the G7, though the latter would supposedly become less significant.
Following the publication of the story, the White House stated unequivocally that no alternate, private or classified version of the NSS exists. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly dismissed the claim as misinformation spread by individuals ‘distant from the President’.
While Prime Minister Orbán praised the actual NSS—calling it the ‘most important’ document in recent years and welcoming the fact that the United States finally recognizes Europe’s civilizational crisis, which Hungary has been fighting for 15 years—the misinformation pushed by Defense One and amplified by mainstream Western outlets serves clear purposes. First, it seeks to fuel further tensions between the US and the EU and to turn European citizens against the Trump administration.
‘Leaving the EU—even given its manifold failings—would amount to national suicide’
Second, it aims to rally Hungarians against Orbán’s government. Leaving the EU—even given its manifold failings—would amount to national suicide, and the overwhelming majority of Hungarians consider the country’s future firmly within the bloc. Orbán himself has recently reaffirmed this stance. Until the fake ‘longer version’ circulated, there was no debate in Hungary about leaving the EU. Hungarians who fall for the misinformation now associate EU withdrawal with Orbán because of his close ties to Trump and his long-standing criticisms of Brussels.
Two days later, on 11 December, Bloomberg published an article claiming that Orbán plans to transform Hungary’s parliamentary democracy into a presidential system to ‘remain in power’ after next year’s election. The allegation relies on the familiar formula of an unnamed ‘source familiar with the situation’, asserting that Orbán was inspired by his November meeting with Donald Trump. Orbán himself addressed the topic recently, explaining that while constitutional restructuring had been a major question for him in 2010, he ultimately decided—after consulting the ‘old guard’—not to alter the system.
Responding to the Bloomberg story, State Secretary Zoltán Kovács said that ‘floating this idea over and over again is nothing more than the usual leftist fake-news routine,’ referring to similar claims made in earlier years. ‘I assume it is harder to do real journalism instead of inventing the headlines,’ Kovács concluded.
Nevertheless, Bloomberg achieved its immediate impact: after the article was picked up widely, the Hungarian forint weakened against the euro, slipping from 381 to 385 shortly after publication. Even the government-critical outlet 24.hu noted that ‘no newsworthy economic data were released’ at the time the exchange rate shifted. It is also worth recalling, as Hungarian Conservative reported earlier, that the forint had recently reached its strongest position against the euro since December 2023, and against the US dollar its best level since February 2022—developments that contributed to rising economic optimism among Hungarians and improving polling numbers for the governing Fidesz–KDNP alliance.
The goals of these seemingly coordinated misinformation campaigns are clear: to undermine the Orbán government and weaken both the prime minister and his party ahead of the 2026 election. As the race appears set to be one of the closest in years, the electoral mood in the months leading up to the vote will be decisive. Narratives shape that mood—and therefore, we must expect Western misinformation campaigns to intensify significantly in the run-up to April.
Related articles:
