Vice President J.D. Vance showed up at the Heritage Foundation last week to celebrate the premier of an Angel Studio documentary series based on his friend Rod Dreher’s 2020 book, “Live Not By Lies.”
Dreher is a conservative blogger who chronicled his own radicalization into far-right authoritarianism. Dreher is such a fan of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his repressive Christian nationalism that he moved to Budapest in 2022 after his wife filed for divorce.
Vance is closely aligned with anti-democracy intellectuals and funders who have pushed the U.S. right-wing to embrace Orbán-style crushing of dissent, attacks on civil society, and capture of the media and the judiciary. Vance, who praised Orbán for seizing control of state universities, has called for “aggressively” attacking universities in the U.S.
In his comments at the Heritage event, Vance unwittingly gave what could be solid advice to leaders of law firms, media outlets, and universities who are tempted to submit to the Trump administration’s intimidation and blackmail. They were not, to be certain, Vance’s intended audience, but here’s what he said: “The way to deal with being attacked by the ruling elites of a given society is to speak the truth, is to live not by lies…You’re going to sacrifice your soul, you’re going to sacrifice your civilization, you’re going sacrifice your family, you’re going to sacrifice your country, if you give into the easy pathway.”
Given the lawlessness, cruelty, and censorship that are the defining traits of the Trump administration, other Vance comments sounded like particularly Orwellian propaganda: “We can rebuild the kind of society where virtue and freedom and our ancient liberties are preserved and enforced and facilitated by our government rather than torn down by our government.”
Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts hosted the premier. Roberts, who oversaw the development of the Project 2025 policy agenda now being imposed on America by the Trump administration, has called Orbán the model for MAGA governance.
And it’s not just Roberts. Religious-right activists at the World Congress of Families adore Orbán for his “pro-family” and anti-LGBTQ policies, which reached a repressive new low last month with a ban on Pride celebrations. The Conservative Political Action Conference has teamed up with Orbán allies to host CPAC events in Hungary; at this year’s CPAC outside Washington, D.C., Hungarian groups were on hand to distribute pro- Orbán propaganda.
At Heritage last week, Vance called Dreher a friend and said Dreher’s promotion of Vance’s book “Hillbilly Elegy” was responsible for its bestseller status, which lead to Vance becoming a public figure, senator, and ultimately vice president.
The admiration is mutual. In an article for a conservative Hungarian publication last summer, Dreher compared Vance to a young Orbán and said Vance “embodies” Trumpism. At Heritage last week, Dreher gushed about Vance, “That man is the future of America, I believe.”
