From Palmer to Pressman: Budapest Embassy Pressurizing Hungary's Right Wing Since 1990

David Pressman, the Biden administration's ambassador to Hungary, is to depart from the country on Monday, reliable diplomatic sources confirmed to Magyar Nemzet. His successor is not yet known, but jockeying for the post is expected to begin in Washington. In the meantime, the embassy in Budapest will be led by a charge d’affaires. Below is a brief overview of the American ambassadors to Budapest and their associated interest circles over the past thirty-five years since the regime change.

US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman (left) greets participants at the Budapest Pride Parade (Photo: AFP)

David Pressman served as the US ambassador to Budapest from September 2022 and will leave a lasting impression even after his departure today. This is mainly due to his provocative (media) actions against the Hungarian government, which many conservative American analysts and commentators frequently criticized. His final act, placing Cabinet Minister Antal Rogan on a US sanctions list, marked a disgraceful farewell for a diplomat, further reinforcing his contentious image.

PM Orban did not receive him

It is unsurprising that since the regime change, Pressman is the only US ambassador whom a Hungarian prime minister in office did not meet. This highlights the level of work required to restore Hungarian-American relations under Donald Trump’s presidency, beginning next week.

Over the past thirty-five years, eleven US ambassadors have served in Budapest. Of these, nine were political appointees (five from Democratic administrations and four from Republican ones), while two were career diplomats. During ambassadorial vacancies, the embassy was led by a charge d’affaires for extended periods. For instance, before Pressman’s arrival, there was no American ambassador stationed in Hungary for almost two years. Ambassadorial appointments—except for a loophole never used for Budapest—require approval from the Senate in Washington. Historically, American ambassadors spend no more than two to three years in Hungary.

Political appointees

Over the last thirty years, a typical US ambassador accredited to Budapest has been

1. a political appointee,
2.  a significant supporter of the sitting US president's campaign (and/or his confidant), and
3. had little to no prior diplomatic experience. Examples include a lawyer (Peter Tufo, Democrat 1997-2001), an anti-cancer activist (Nancy Goodman Brinker, Republican, 2001-2003), Hollywood screenwriter (Colleen Bell, Democrat, 2015-2017) or a jeweler (David Cornstein, Republican, 2018-2020). Some owed their posts to personal connections with the US president. For example, April Foley (2006–2009) was a university friend of Republican President George W. Bush, while her predecessor, George Herbert Walker (2003–2006), was the cousin of Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush. David Cornstein referred to Trump as a close personal friend from New York. (However, contrary to some reports, our sources deem it unlikely that Cornstein, now 87, will return to Budapest as ambassador. The same is said about Goodman Brinker, who is 78.)

In Washington, the prestige of the Hungarian capital has been consistently good for decades, a desirable ambassadorial post. Budapest is considered a beautiful, livable European city, where the ambassador's family can live a "princely" life, but at the same time the ambassador does not have to engage in diplomatic firefighting, which requires a great deal of expertise and carries special responsibility, or resolve global political and trade issues.

Some ambassadors collected art while in Budapest (Goodman Brinker), others had a penchant for young women (Tufo)...

By contrast, ambassadorial posts in Moscow, Beijing, London, and Tokyo are typically reserved for more prominent figures, such as governors, senators, or experienced career diplomats. However, under Trump’s presidency, Budapest’s significance may further increase.

Palmer, Goodfriend, Pressman 

Against this backdrop, it is noteworthy that over the past thirty-five years, three mission leaders have significantly interfered in Hungary's domestic affairs—always to the detriment of the political right. These were either career diplomats or individuals with prior diplomatic experience.

• Mark Palmer served during Hungary's regime change under Republican presidents (Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush) from 1986 to 1990. Critics alleged that he was essentially accredited to the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ). Later, he unsuccessfully sought a stake in Hungary’s commercial television sector. In 2012, during the second Orban government, Palmer, along with Charles Gati and Miklos Haraszti, a former MP of SZDSZ, advocated for relaunching Radio Free Europe's Hungarian service (which is no longer a traditional radio broadcast, but a multimedia online news service) in The Washington Post. Palmer died in 2013, but  paradoxically, this effort, though delayed, bore fruit during Trump's first presidency in 2020. Now, however, the Republican "Project 2025" initiative advocates shutting down the service, citing that it no longer aligns with Radio Free Europe’s charter, as Hungary's government is "democratically elected, and Hungary is a pro-US European country and a NATO ally".
• Andre Goodfriend served as charge d’affaires during an ambassadorial "interregnum" between 2013 and 2015 under Democratic President Barack Obama. Known for bias reminiscent of Palmer and aggressiveness later exhibited by Pressman, the tenure of Goodfriend—whose name became subject of jokes in Budapest for being far from a 'good friend'—coincided with the so-called travel ban scandal and made his name widely known. 

The background to this is that after Fidesz's 2010 election victory, the Democratic administration in Washington tried to use harsh measures to divert the Orban government from its sovereign national political direction.

They drew up a a list of points in Hungarian laws that they considered necessary to amend. Charles Gati even envisioned a civil war, and said that Viktor Orban could be removed by non-democratic methods. And then the entry ban scandal erupted in October 2014. In a move eerily similar to the current sanction against Cabinet Minister Antal Rogan, the United States imposed a travel ban on six unnamed Hungarian officials, citing corruption although no evidence was provided. (Ildiko Vida, the head of Hungary's tax authority, disclosed that she was one of the officials.) This episode stirred significant controversy in Hungary.

• David Pressman was appointed ambassador by President Joe Biden in July 2022; his name was not known to the Hungarian public before then. Although he is not a career diplomat, having pursued a legal career in the private sector, he held a major diplomatic post under Obama, serving as deputy chief of mission to Samantha Power at the US mission to the UN in New York. He also represented the US at the UN Security Council. After his arrival in Hungary, instead of diplomatic chores and the development of Hungarian-American relations, he was engaged in supporting the Hungarian opposition's pseudo civil society organizations  and media outlets, repeatedly attacking the Orban government in his media appearances and acting as an LGBTQ activist. (He is the only US ambassador to have brought a same-sex spouse to Budapest, and presented his letter of credence accompanied by Daniel Basila.) 

In all this, he could count on help from his former boss, Power, also a political appointee, who — now as head of USAID, the United States Agency for International Development—visited Budapest in 2023 and also advocated for the support of pro-migration and pro-gender pseudo-NGOs and opposition media outlets.

(It is hardly a coincidence that Project 2025 calls for a restructuring of USAID and its ridding of left-wing propaganda politics.)

State department, Soros, deep state

In a way that is difficult to reconcile with diplomatic practice, from Palmer to Pressman, a thread—particularly under Democratic administrations—connects the US state department and the Budapest embassy with Hungary’s leftist-liberal side and American deep-state interests. George Soros played a major role in this network; it is telling that Joe Biden recently honored the billionaire for his international activities.

This interconnection is further evidenced by the naming of an archive at Soros’s private university Vera and Donald Blinken, the father and stepmother of outgoing US State Secretary Antony Blinken. Donald Blinken, who deceased in 2022, was a Democratic appointee, serving as ambassador to Budapest from 1994 to 1997.
It is also telling that elder Blinken's residence on Zugligeti Road in Budapest was the venue where in 1995, Richard Holbrooke (1941-2010), a chief figure in foreign service, and Kati Marton, Soros's ally, got married. Marton is now a member of the international  advisory board of the Action for Democracy, an organisation that used deep state instruments to support the opposition in Hungary in the 2022 parliamentary elections.

This thread is also shown by the recurring appearance of  Charles Gati, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, who regularly steps out of his academic role to assume advisory activities at Action for Democracy or advocacy for the relaunch of Radio Free Europe's Hungarian service. It is also noteworthy that Gati attended (proven by an exchange of e-mails) the symposium near Washington on November 19, 2009 that focused on Central Europe and was organized by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The latter office was headed by Gati's wife, Toby Trister Gati under Bill Clinton's tenure and during elder Blinken's time as ambassador to Budapest.

Cover photo: US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman (left) greets participants at the Budapest Pride Parade (Photo: AFP)