U.S. Vice President JD Vance held the first meeting of the Anti-Fraud Task Force to investigate alleged wrongdoing by Democrats and the Biden administration. The initiative is hitting home in Hungary, where past interference, often U.S-funded, has been a constant thorn in the side of the government led by Viktor Orbán.
Vance’s task force will be working with the Justice Department, the FBI, and other government agencies, reports Magyar Nemzet, to investigate corruption cases, including election fraud in individual states and cases that may involve Ukraine.
The Trump administration has also signaled that it will take a more aggressive approach to social security fraud, which Vance said the federal government has failed to address for decades. The initiative is motivated by several high-profile cases, including the fraudulent daycare networks in Minneapolis and election fraud in some states.
The task force includes several key government figures – a significant number of Cabinet members, the head of the Justice Department’s new anti-fraud division, and the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. A new judicial unit has also been established to take action more effectively.
Declassified U.S. intelligence documents show that in 2022, Ukrainian officials discussed a plan to indirectly redirect hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid originally intended for clean energy back to the United States.
Hungary has also been the target of American funding of opposition media and politicians during past election cycles, with money being funneled in via left-wing NGOs, Soros-backed entities, and other groups. The last head of USAID, Samantha Power, visited Hungary in February 2023 at the invitation of the since-departed and vocal Orbán critic U.S. ambassador, David Pressman, to meet with NGOs working in the field of democracy export.
With Trump in power, USAID has been shut down, although some of the same activities and groups looking to oust Orbán are alive and well via money from Brussels.
Based on intercepted communications, a significant portion of funds at the center of Vance’s investigation may have been used to finance Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign and the Democratic Party, writes Magyar Nemzet. This was allegedly done through American subcontractors and difficult-to-trace schemes. The relevant American agencies have raised the issue that no substantive investigation was conducted during the Biden administration.
Magyar Nemzet also notes that Donald Jr. Trump also spoke in a podcast about how war-torn Ukraine received funds under the name of “clean energy projects,” of which he claimed 90 percent was diverted through USAID, led by Samantha Power, and other NGOs to support the Democratic election campaign, while the remaining 10 percent went to Zelensky and his circle.
Attempts by American liberals to interfere with Hungarian elections are not a thing of the past. In a post last month, Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, took direct aim at USAID, the German Marshal Fund, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for funding left-liberal journalist Szabolcs Panyi, a journalist caught allegedly helping foreign intelligence services to illegally wiretap Hungarian Foreign Mininster Szijjártó’s phone.
‼️THIS IS HOW THEY TRY TO CHANGE A GOVERNMENT FROM ABROAD‼️
Foreign interference in the campaign ahead of Hungary’s April elections has reached a new level.
While there is clear and documented evidence that Brussels and Kyiv are interfering in Hungary’s elections on the side of… pic.twitter.com/0kdSWa5nyX
— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) March 24, 2026“Szabolcs Panyi and the network he represents, which operates from USAID and Soros-funded sources, and in cooperation with the intelligence services of unnamed EU member states has been involved in the surveillance of Hungary’s Foreign Minister,” his post reads.
‼️ONCE A SPY, ALWAYS A SPY‼️
It seems that “investigative” journalist Szabolcs Panyi, the man behind the Hungarian Russia Hoax, always shows up on the side of those who want to topple Hungary’s national government and install a pro-Brussels, pro-Ukraine government in its place.… https://t.co/1zBdHnRZMM pic.twitter.com/FcqzeT6e8K
— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) March 25, 2026“THIS IS HOW THEY TRY TO CHANGE A GOVERNMENT FROM ABROAD. Foreign interference in the campaign ahead of Hungary’s April elections has reached a new level,” Balázs Orbán wrote, emphasizing that both “Brussels and Kyiv are interfering in Hungary’s elections on the side of Péter Magyar.”
While attempting to entrap Szijjártó in charges of treason to help bring opposition leader Magyar to power, the only clear result so far has been possible espionage and treason charges for Panyi himself.
Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to refuse to reopen the Druzhba pipeline, which transits Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, in what has appeared to be a blatant attempt to create an energy crisis in Hungary ahead of the election next weekend. Maintaining low heating and gasoline prices has been a core policy for the Orbán-led Fidesz government, and Zelensky is determined to try to make this impossible, directly hurting Hungarian citizens in doing so, hoping they will then rebel against Orbán.
However, Brussels itself has made it clear that one of the first things they will do under a Magyar government is reverse all Fidesz price caps and eliminate Russian oil once and for all, which will create a price surge across all consumer utilities.
And yet, with the Iran War now in play and the Strait of Hormuz closed, Brussels elites are getting nervous about energy prices as well, indicating that they may be looking to allow other EU member states that had previously relied on Druzhba to regain access to this source of oil.
Meanwhile, some in Brussels are simply confused as to what Zelensky is trying to achieve.
“The EU wants to adopt another sanctions package and put pressure on Russia, Ukraine needs the loan, Hungary and Slovakia are critically dependent on the flows of oil and are running on reserves,” one diplomatic source told Euractiv.
Zelensky’s refusal to reopen Druzhba is “an enigma,” this source said, adding: “If Druzhba is deblocked, all sides win.”
