However, the ruling is not as bad for the Trump administration as the headline makes it sound: it only dictates that contractors be paid for their jobs already completed, totalling around $2 billion in expenses. The decision was close, a 5–4 split among the justices.
All USAID contracts in Hungary have been terminated after Hungarian Government Commissioner András László met with the agency’s newly appointed head, Peter Marocco, in Washington. László’s task is to investigate USAID funding channelled to Hungarian NGOs and media outlets, aiming to curb foreign influence ahead of the 2026 parliamentary elections.
4 March will be considered a dark day in the history of modern Serbian democracy. During the first day of the spring session, opposition politicians threw smoke bombs and flares in the building, sabotaging key reforms regarding months-long anti-government protests. The chaotic events fit in a regional pattern of destabilization efforts concerning patriotic governments, including Hungary and Slovakia.
In his Joint Address to Congress, President Trump laid out what he had achieved so far in the short time into his second term, such as pushing illegal crossings down to record lows and eliminating wasteful spending by the government. In his overzealous protest, Democrat Congressman Al Green had to be removed from the Chamber by force.
Senior US diplomat Robert Palladino will assume leadership of the US Embassy in Budapest as Chargé d’Affaires from 7 March. However, as stated in the embassy’s announcement, Palladino’s mandate is temporary, leaving the race open for the successor to former US Ambassador David Pressman—who will face the enormous task of repairing US–Hungary relations, which were severely damaged by Joe Biden’s envoy.
‘The emerging sovereigntist era unleashes nationalist energies that must be tempered and channelled constructively. Currently, Trump’s “America First” is swinging like a wrecking ball through the West’s liberal order. Also, a new zeitgeist is unfolding, upending our conceptual world and even shifting how we imagine space and time.’
Multiple news outlets were able to demonstrate that, as of late February 2025, if a user said the word ‘racist’ to Apple’s voice note feature, it often first transcribed it as ‘Trump’ before correcting itself to the actual word. Apple has responded to the controversy, saying they are aware of the issue and fixing the bug.
Former US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman continues to badmouth Viktor Orbán and his government. This time, in an interview with American public broadcaster NPR, he claimed that under the guise of conservatism, Orbán embraces nihilistic corruption.
Hungarian Magnitsky Act, the appointment of a special envoy to Washington to collect evidence of USAID’s meddling in Hungary, and Europe’s largest tax cut—these are just a few of the vast initiatives Viktor Orbán announced in his annual State of the Nation speech. Highlighting Hungary’s political resilience, the Hungarian PM declared that 2025 would mark not just survival but victory, describing it as a ‘breakthrough year’.
‘According to the Chinese zodiac, 2025 is the year of the snake, which symbolizes change and transformation. It thus may not be a coincidence that Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to bring about drastic changes in Washington, commenced his second term as President of the United States in this epochal year.’
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
