What’s the big deal about Hungary? It’s a central European country with 9.5 million people — slightly less in population and area than the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. But it’s been the subject of more care, attention, and debate in America than any other country in Europe or the Western Hemisphere. 

Vice President JD Vance was in Budapest the Tuesday before Hungary’s election last Sunday and, with President Donald Trump chiming in over the phone, gave 16-year incumbent Viktor Orban an endorsement in all but name. Vance praised Orban’s “generous family subsidies” and decried European Union “bureaucrats in Brussels,” who have been fining Hungary 1 million euros a day for declining to admit refugees.