In a Reversal, U. S. Warms to Hungary

BUDAPEST — Across rural Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban dominates the media landscape. His allies control the major regional newspapers, which provide supportive coverage of Mr. Orban’s anti- immigrant agenda and his methodical erosion of the country’s democratic checks and balances. Critical, independent outlets are mostly absent.

But last November, that looked set to change as the United States State Department announced a $700,000 grant to help nurture independent media outlets in rural Hungary. To the State Department, the grant would continue an American effort to promote free speech. To the Orban administration, it was another provocation from a country that had treated the prime minister like a pariah since 2012. Finalists for the grant were identified, but the selection of a recipient was deferred in July.

“A huge victory,” declared Andras Simonyi, Mr. Orban’s former envoy to NATO, and later the Hungarian ambassador to Washington. “This sends a message that Hungary is O.K., that Hungary is a democracy.”

For years, Mr. Orban’s government has craved validation from Washington, spending millions of dollars on lobbying. The Obama administration largely ostracized Mr. Orban, avoiding high-level, bilateral contacts as punishment for his authoritarian tendencies.

But now the Trump administration is signaling a new engagement with Hungary. The shift has alarmed campaigners for democracy and the rule of law, even as others argue that the Obama strategy of trying to isolate Mr. Orban had failed, and created openings for Russian and Chinese influence.

To some European diplomats and analysts, President Donald J. Trump’s pivot in Hungary deepens their belief that his administration is trying to divide the European Union. Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Germany, Richard A. Grenell, has said he hopes to empower conservative forces across the Continent.

With a program to build what he calls an “illiberal democracy,” Mr. Orban has cultivated ties with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and called for a “countercultural revolution” in the European Union. His critics argue that he has tampered with the electoral map and placed the judiciary under the management of one of his friends.

In May, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in Washington with his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto. In June, Mr. Trump spoke by phone with Mr. Orban.

Not long afterward, the $700,000 grant for independent media outlets in rural Hungary was deferred.

The loss of a grant to lift free speech bolsters Budapest.

Then a magazine critical of Mr. Orban, Heti Valasz, announced that it would shut down, and the private television channel HirTV was taken over by an Orban ally.

Robert G. Berschinski, a former deputy assistant secretary of state, said he saw the decision as evidence of the Trump administration’s downplaying of democracy abroad. Others say it was worth trying a more quietist strategy.

David B. Cornstein, the new ambassador to Budapest, vowed to speak out strongly in private if he concluded that the Orban government was a threat to the rule of law.

“If you see something is not democratic, something is hurting the Hungarian government and people, you should say something about it,” he said. “But it should be done in private. You don’t voice that opinion first and foremost in the media.”