Investigating claim Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán used taxpayer money to fund CPAC

After outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a right-wing populist close to U.S. President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement, lost his country's election on April 12, 2026, a rumor circulated online that he had used taxpayers' money to fund CPAC, a conference held by the American Conservative Union that gathers conservative activists and politicians. 

While CPAC is based in the U.S., the ACU has held a sister conference in Budapest, Hungary, since 2022, gathering right-wing populists from across Europe and the world.

U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, a Democrat from California, claimed in an X post that Orbán "used Hungarian government funds to help finance CPAC," adding that foreign governments are prohibited from spending money in U.S. elections (archived):

The claim further spread on Facebook and Reddit, and Snopes readers searched the website and emailed us to verify whether the rumor was true.

The claim stemmed from a news conference held by Péter Magyar, the Hungarian politician who won the general election against Orbán, on April 13, 2026. During the conference, Magyar denounced the corruption of Orbán's government. (Orbán remained in power for 16 years by eroding checks and balances and heavily redrawing the electoral map for his party to win majorities in parliament.)

Magyar suggested that Orbán's government had improperly used government money to support political parties and conservative organizations, such as CPAC and the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, a group that provides conservative education to complement general schooling. He was responding to a CNN reporter's question about conservative think tanks receiving funds from the Hungarian government.

Because information about the ACU's donors was not publicly available as of this writing, we were unable to independently verify that Orbán directed his government to fund CPAC. We have reached out to Orbán's government, Magyar, CPAC and the CNN reporter seeking details and primary sources, such as financial records, that would confirm the claim. We will update this report should they respond.

Meanwhile, David Meyers, director of editorial and media strategy at OpenSecrets.org — the organization dedicated to political funding transparency — told Snopes in an email it was not possible for his team to verify this information because the ACU does not have to disclose the identities of its donors.

What Magyar said

During the news conference, CNN reporter Melissa Bell asked Magyar whether conservative think tanks and organizations such as MCC would continue to receive funding from the Hungarian government (at the 1:42:36 mark):

The transcript of the exchange is as follows:

BELL: Viktor Orbán was such a figure in the global populist movement. What did that mean to you? My second question is about Hungarian influence. Here in Budapest, these think tanks, the MCC educational centers… What will happen to these? Will they continued to be financed with state funds?

MAGYAR: What does MAGA and these populist institutions mean? […] I don't think this is my place because MAGA and this whole populist group, this is their business… I think this is a big defeat for them, because we can also say Viktor Orbán was their advertising face.

Magyar then expounded on his view of Orbán and said he hoped the U.S. government would cooperate with his future government despite his win over the Trump ally. 

At the 1:46:57 mark, Magyar suggested that CPAC received money from Orbán's government and that such a use of state funds should be investigated because "it was a crime":

The second question is that the [Hungarian] state will not finance these things. Neither the event called CPAC nor others like this, such as the Mathias Corvinus Collegium and the other associated institutions.

I think that it could not have been financed until now, it was a crime. So to mix the party financing with the government spending, which is the source of spending, I think it is a crime. And this must also be examined by the following authorities, the National Revenue Registration Agency, because they were not there as the budgetary resources to hold the party event. CPAC can come to Budapest in peace. Very welcome. But it must not be financed with the money of Hungarian taxpayers, but with the money of Fidesz [Orbán's political party], or Viktor Orbán's money.

As of this writing, it was unclear what information or sources Magyar used to back his claim that Orbán's government funded CPAC. We will update this story if we receive clarification from his office.

For further reading, Snopes once confirmed that a banner at the 2022 CPAC read "We Are All Domestic Terrorists."