Trump Just Promised America's Money to a Foreign Dictator While You Can't Afford Groceries, Gas and Insurance. Read That Again.

After four decades in courtrooms I can tell you something about liars. They always tell on themselves. Not in some dramatic courtroom confession. In the small, careless moments when they forget you are watching. Donald Trump just had one of those moments.

On April 10, 2026, with American families drowning in rising prices, with businesses struggling under the weight and consequences of his illegal tariffs, with manufacturing jobs vanishing instead of returning, Trump took to Truth Social and promised to use the full economic might of the United States to strengthen the economy of Hungary. Not Ohio. Not Michigan. Not the small towns and working families he swore to fight for. Hungary.

He made that promise to prop up Viktor Orban, a man running for reelection after 16 years of authoritarian rule, a man whose own top cabinet minister was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for systemic corruption, a man who told Vladimir Putin on a recorded phone call five months ago, “I am at your service.”

This is your America First president.

Who Is Viktor Orban?

Transparency International has ranked Hungary the most corrupt country in the European Union, tied with Bulgaria at the bottom of the index, for four consecutive years. That ranking did not happen by accident. Orban built it, brick by brick, over 16 years of consolidated power.

The European Union froze more than 18 billion euros in funding to Hungary over corruption and rule of law violations. Orban’s son in law, Istvan Tiborcz, won a string of EU funded public contracts through a company called Elios that the European Anti Fraud Office found riddled with collusion, conspiracy, and inflated pricing. The Hungarian government refused to prosecute.

On January 7, 2025, just 13 days before Trump took office, the outgoing Biden administration’s Treasury Department sanctioned Antal Rogan, a senior Orban cabinet minister, under the Global Magnitsky Act. The Treasury accused Rogan of orchestrating a system of public contract kickbacks that funneled state resources to political loyalists. Whistleblowers inside the Hungarian government described the operation as a kleptocracy. Trump’s incoming team called the sanctions politically motivated. Instead of enforcing them, the new administration embraced Orban with open arms.

Court wiretaps from Hungary’s highest profile corruption trial revealed what one investigative outlet described as a country run in a mafia style system where state bodies collaborate with criminals and the justice system covers up involvement of high ranking officials.

And last week, a transcript reviewed by Bloomberg showed Orban telling Putin he would act as a “mouse” helping the Russian “lion,” pledging his personal loyalty in a conversation so servile it would embarrass a paid operative. Orban told Putin, “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.”

This is the man Trump calls a “true friend, fighter, and winner.” This is where Trump wants your tax dollars to go.

Meanwhile, Back in America

A year after Liberation Day, the tariff experiment has delivered exactly what every credible economist predicted. Prices went up. Jobs disappeared. Manufacturing shrank.

Trump’s tariffs amounted to the largest U.S. tax increase as a percentage of GDP since 1993. The Tax Foundation estimates those tariffs cost the average American household an additional $1,000 in 2025, with new 2026 tariffs adding another $600, bringing the total annual burden to $1,500 per household this year. The Federal Reserve confirmed that tariffs drove inflation above the central bank’s 2 percent target. Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated directly that elevated inflation readings largely reflect the effects of tariffs on the goods sector.

Food prices climbed 2.8 percent in the year following Liberation Day. Sugar and sweets rose 5.7 percent. Coffee and tomatoes, both heavily imported, saw some of the steepest increases. And economists warn the worst is still coming. The full tariff impact on consumer prices carries a 12 to 18 month lag, placing peak pressure between now and October.

Manufacturing, the sector Trump promised to supercharge, lost 77,000 jobs between April and December 2025. The ratio of job openings to unemployed workers dropped below 1.0 for the first time since 2021. Businesses stopped hiring because they could not plan. Tariff policy changed more than 50 times in a single year. No company can build a strategy on top of chaos.

The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 on February 20, 2026 that Trump’s sweeping IEEPA tariffs were illegal. The government now faces refund obligations estimated between $165 billion and $175 billion owed to businesses that paid tariffs the president had no legal authority to collect. Instead of accepting the ruling, the administration pivoted to new tariffs under different legal authority, keeping the cycle of uncertainty alive.

Health insurance premiums for marketplace plans jumped 114 percent after the administration allowed enhanced premium tax credits to expire. 1.4 million fewer Americans enrolled in marketplace plans in 2026. Utility bills are rising across 49 states, with electricity prices increasing at 2.5 times the rate of overall inflation.

And into this environment, with Americans paying more for groceries, gas, health care, and electricity, with businesses unable to plan, with manufacturing in decline, the President of the United States found time to campaign for a foreign autocrat and pledge American economic resources to a country of 10 million people whose leader just told Vladimir Putin he is “at your service.”

What This Is Really About

Trump does not care about Hungary. He cares about the authoritarian project. He sent JD Vance to Budapest this week to rally for Orban. He called into a campaign event. He posted multiple endorsements. He promised American investment dollars.

The reason is simple. Orban is the model. Consolidate power. Capture the courts. Buy the media. Reward loyalists. Punish dissenters. Call your opponents enemies of the state. Trump already calls the Democratic Party “the greatest enemy America has.” He already threatens mass pardons for anyone who agrees with him and who came within 200 feet of the Oval Office. He already rules by executive decree on tariffs that courts have struck down.

The Orban playbook is the Trump playbook. And Trump needs Orban to survive Sunday’s election so the playbook keeps its credibility.

What You Can Do

Orban’s fate is up to Hungarian voters tomorrow. Your fate is up to you in November.

Register to vote today. If you are already registered, confirm your registration. Check your polling location. Talk to five people who stayed home last time. The midterms are your next chance to send a message that this country belongs to its people, not to a president who pledges your economic resources to foreign dictators while your grocery bill keeps climbing.

Trump’s time as an unchecked force in American politics has an expiration date. That date is the first Tuesday in November.

Show up. Vote. Take your country back.

Mitch Jackson, Esq.

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