‘I want people to know what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it. I want people to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children. I want people to understand the American Dream as my family and I encountered it. I want people to understand how upward mobility really feels. And I want people to understand something I learned only recently: that for those of us lucky enough to live the American Dream, the demons of the life we left behind continue to chase us.’

The above quote is from the 50th Vice President of the United States, JD Vance’s 2016 best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. The book, which was later adapted into a Netflix film that soared into the platform’s global Top 10, chronicles Vance’s life journey, from his early childhood to his years at Yale University.

Vance described a childhood marked by family violence, extreme poverty, and a mother struggling with drug addiction. At the same time, he shed light on the broader societal problems facing America’s white working class, using his own experiences to illustrate both successful and failed approaches to these challenges.

Growing up in Middletown, Ohio, is challenging—and it was even more so in the 1980s when Vance was a child. Appalachia, one of the poorest regions in the United States, continues to face significant economic struggles. The poverty rate lags behind the national average, as does the median household income. According to the Appalachian Regional Commission, approximately 14.7 per cent of Appalachian residents lived below the poverty line between 2016 and 2022, with a significant disparity of around 20 percentage points between rural and urban areas within the region.

‘Growing up in Middletown often meant there was no escape’

Growing up in Middletown often meant there was no escape. Yet, Vance defied the odds and made it to the top. After finishing high school, he joined the Marine Corps, serving as a military correspondent from 2003 to 2007, including a six-month deployment to Iraq in 2005. He went on to graduate from Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in 2009 and earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 2013.

After a brief stint as a corporate lawyer, Vance transitioned to the tech industry, building a career as a venture capitalist. His mentor was none other than Peter Thiel, one of the first Silicon Valley billionaires to endorse Donald Trump.

Vance’s Conversion: From Never Trump to MAGA

JD Vance entered politics and gained nationwide fame in 2022 when he defeated Democrat Tim Ryan in the Senate race in Ohio. By this time, Vance was a staunch MAGA Republican, strongly supporting Donald Trump. However, this wasn’t always the case.

In 2016, Vance was part of the so-called ‘Never Trump’ movement, harshly criticizing Trump and opposing his nomination as the Republican candidate for the presidency. During a book tour following the release of his memoir, Vance referred to Trump’s candidacy as ‘cultural heroin’ and, according to texts shared on social media by a former roommate, described Trump as either a ‘cynical asshole’ or ‘America’s next Hitler.’ Despite this, Vance consistently stated that he understands why white working-class voters found Trump appealing.

Vance’s views on Trump began to shift by 2018. In a subsequent print run of Hillbilly Elegy, he wrote that aspects of Trump’s candidacy had resonated with him, particularly Trump’s ‘disdain for the elites and criticism of foreign policy blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan’ by previous administrations.

‘Vance’s views on Trump began to shift by 2018’

In 2022, Trump endorsed Vance in the Republican primary for Senate, brushing aside earlier feud. In a statement at the time, Trump said that Vance ‘gets it now, and I have seen that in spades.’

In a 2022 interview with New York Magazine, JD Vance openly discussed his conversion from a Never Trumper to a staunch MAGA Republican. ‘I think there are so many reasons I was wrong about Trump, but I’m happy that I was wrong about Trump,’ he explained, adding that it’s far better to acknowledge a change in perspective than to ‘try to pretend that you didn’t say something you said.’

Now, at 40 years old and a father of three, Vance has moved into the Number One Observatory Circle in Washington, D.C., the official residence of the Vice President of the United States. With this, he has become the first millennial to hold the No. 2 position in America.

Nothing But Love For Hungary

JD Vance’s political views are deeply rooted in the culture and struggles of Appalachia. Despite coming from a dysfunctional family, he has become one of the strongest advocates for family policies and a vocal critic of childlessness. His love for his nation and homeland, admiration for the white working class—while openly acknowledging their flaws and struggles—and his opposition to elites all stem from his upbringing in the small town of Middletown.

Even though Vance immersed himself in the liberal environment of American universities and was shaped by education rooted in liberal ideals, he ultimately prioritized his love for his country and America’s interests in his political career.

In this sense, as Rod Dreher, American author and senior research fellow at the Danube Institute, and a friend of JD Vance, wrote in his opinion piece in Hungarian Conservative, the vice president’s life path in many ways similar to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán grew up in a small village in the Hungarian countryside, Felcsút, attended university in Budapest, and later studied in Oxford through a scholarship programme funded by Hungarian–American billionaire George Soros. However, just like Vance, Orbán now opposes much of what his liberal education taught him and much of what his former patron, Soros, stands for. In Hungary, Orbán has built what many consider the last bastion of national Christian conservatism in an increasingly woke Europe—a move that has not gone unnoticed in Republican circles.

Although the similarity in their life paths may not play a significant role, JD Vance loves Hungary, views many of the Hungarian government’s actions as examples to follow, and is a vocal supporter of Viktor Orbán. From family policy and educational reform to the war in Ukraine, Vance’s views align closely with those of the Hungarian government.

‘In Hungary under Orbán, they offer loans to newly married couples that are forgiven at some point later if those couples have actually stayed together and had kids. Why can’t we do that here? Why can’t we actually promote family formation?’ he remarked in 2021. Hungarian family policy is widely seen as one of its greatest strengths abroad, attracting the attention of conservative experts and politicians seeking to adapt these ideas into their own policy frameworks.

In an interview with Hungarian Conservative, Jay W Richards of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation argued that Trump’s second presidency should prioritize addressing the demographic crisis currently affecting the West—and parts of the East—and develop a family policy to tackle this issue. According to Richards, JD Vance could play a pivotal role in this effort. ‘I think that JD Vance, the vice presidential candidate with President Trump, is the more likely messenger on this. He’s young, he’s a millennial, he has a young family, he thinks about these issues,’ Richards highlighted.

Vance has also criticized the European Union for withholding funds from Hungary due to its views on Ukraine. Interestingly, these views align closely with Vance’s own, as he has been a vocal skeptic of continued funding for Kyiv.

Moreover, JD Vance has expressed support for Hungary’s higher education reform, which aims to counteract wokism on campuses and give the government—and, by extension, the People—greater control over how universities allocate state grants.

‘I’m not endorsing every single thing that Viktor Orbán has ever done. I don’t know everything he’s ever done,’ Vance stated in a recent interview with CBS. ‘What I do think is, on the university principle, the idea that taxpayers should have some influence in how their money is spent at these universities—it’s a totally reasonable thing. And I do think that he’s made some smart decisions there that we could learn from in the United States.’

‘Vance understands the views of the Hungarian government, and aligns with Viktor Orbán on many issues’

Vance, unlike many MAGA Republicans, is deeply embedded in various conservative intellectual circles and maintains strong relationships with right-wing thinkers who also view Hungary as an example to follow in many ways. Among them is the aforementioned Rod Dreher, who even relocated to Hungary in what he calls a ‘self-described exile.’

‘Since then, he has relocated primarily to Hungary, where he has become something of an intellectual consigliere in Viktor Orbán’s government,’ wrote POLITICO about Dreher, who also played a role in boosting Vance’s memoir. Dreher called Hillbilly Elegy ‘one of the best books I’ve ever read’ and conducted a widely-discussed interview with Vance for The American Conservative.

To make a long story short: the 50th Vice President of the United States has a deep admiration for Hungary, understands the views of the Hungarian government, and aligns with Viktor Orbán on many issues. This connection gives Hungary a significantly stronger position to defend itself against the relentless attacks from progressives. And who knows—four years from now, that influence could become even stronger.

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