The 2024 election marked the fourth consecutive US presidential election where the popular vote margin was within five points—an unprecedented occurrence in US history. The last candidate to win the popular vote by more than 10 points was Republican Ronald Reagan in 1984. Why are US presidential elections so close in the 21st century?
On his way to Thursday’s EU summit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated in an interview that the European Union lacks the strength to impose its vision on the war in Ukraine. ‘The EU is isolated,’ he added, emphasizing that Brussels stands alone on the global stage with its pro-war stance.
Alan J Kuperman, in a rare opinion piece published by The Hill, breaks with the Western narrative on the causes of the war in Ukraine, acknowledging that Donald Trump is right about most of the factors behind the conflict. This ultimately means Hungary was right as well, as the Hungarian government’s position on the war closely aligns with that of the US president.
‘On the day the US temporarily halted military aid to Ukraine, Kellogg delivered a speech at CFR in Washington, DC. He emphasized that Ukraine had several opportunities to sign the US–Ukraine $500 billion Minerals Deal, including during his visit to Kyiv on 19 February and during Zelenskyy’s last trip to Washington, which is unlikely to be remembered as a successful diplomatic effort.’
‘There is a historic chance for US–Hungary relations to peak, and it depends in no small part on the two leading players. Even though Hungary is a member of the EU and NATO, in the last two decades, American Democratic administrations have been explicitly hostile towards it…With the US president behind him, Orbán could be much more effective in strengthening his conservative agenda in Brussels, which until now has been an uphill struggle.’
‘The world is not what you think it is; there is a dimension to reality that modernity denies, but it’s still there and we have to reconnect with it because our own spiritual and cultural survival depends on it. There was a reason why we got to this place in the West. And if we understand that, we can return to what our ancestors knew to be true.’
Former US ambassador to Hungary David Pressman continued his smear campaign against his former host country on CNN. However, while speaking to Christiane Amanpour, he accidentally admitted that he viewed Hungary as a ‘battleground between democracy and authoritarianism’ and that his goal was to defeat this perceived authoritarianism—essentially, ousting Viktor Orbán and his government.
President Trump’s speech before Congress had a viewership of 36.6 million in the United States, which is a significant increase from President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union Address, watched by 32.23 million people. The vast majority of viewers also approved of Donald Trump’s address, according to polls both by CBS and CNN.
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.
According to AtlasIntel, the most accurate pollster in the last three national US elections, President Trump is more popular among Americans than President Obama. Trump’s favourability stands at 50 per cent, while President Obama’s stands at 47 per cent.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.