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The Rubin Report
Debunking the Many Myths of Hungary
00:32:08
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” discusses his experiences and observations in Hungary, highlighting it as a stronghold against what he perceives as the decline of Western Europe; why Hungary should be praised for its cultural preservation and...
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- [00:10]
Dave Rubin
Out of all of the countries in all of Europe, meaning Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Europe, etc. Hungary, to me, is the strongest. I think some of the other Eastern and Central European nations are doing just fine. Hungary really is sort of, I would say, the. It's the main bulwark against the craziness. And Western Europe is largely screwed up. And I don't sense, you know, after spending a lot of time in London and wandering around those streets like, you try to find me a native Brit who is bullish on his country. And you gotta find somebody who's like six pints in and willing to tell you that, because otherwise it's hard to find. Does it shock you that Hungary is the example for other European countries? Yeah, that's a good question. Because does it shock me that Hungary is the example? What's obvious to me is that they learned the lessons. That's the thing. These people are serious about protecting their nation this time because their ancestors paid the price for it. I'll make it work.
- [01:27]
Balash Orban
And then.
- [01:27]
Dave Rubin
So that's 5pm London time, at 6pm Budapest time.
- [01:32]
Balash Orban
Yeah.
- [01:39]
Dave Rubin
Wonderful. Already it's a little early. I'm Dave Rubin, host of the Rubin Report, and we're going to be talking about Hungary, a very small, misunderstood country that I've spent a lot of time in and really grown to love. What are some of the main things that stood out about Hungary? You know, Hungary is small. First off, it really is a small country. I don't know if people think it's big or think it's medium or think it's small, but it's a country geographically that's pretty small. In Central Europe, people think it's in Eastern Europe. Technically, it's Central Europe. And it's only got 9.7 million people, which is not a lot. We've got about 350 million in America, so only about 10 million people. But they have a heritage, they have a history, they have a culture. They've survived the Communists and they've survived the Nazis. And so much of what's happening in Hungary in 2025 is a rebuilding or a rebirth of the survival of their history. And they're trying to figure out how do we protect our borders, how do we protect our country, our values, without giving away too much to all of the European nations that seem to want to take a lot from Hungary. They want them to open their borders and take in refugees and create much of the mess that's across Europe right now. And Hungary, almost all the Hungarians that I talk to and I'm sure I talk to plenty of people from all sorts of walks of life. They just want Hungary to remain Hungarian. And that seems like a pretty noble project to me. What was it like being there? What was the weather like? What was the overall vibe and energy while being in Hungary? You know, this was my second time in Budapest. And it's a beautiful, beautiful city. And what I love about it is that there's incredible history. They've survived wars. There's, you know, places that were destroyed that are being rebuilt. But then you see the parliament building that is absolutely stunning. You can't believe that they could even make architecture like that. And you walk across the Danube river and the bridge and, you know, everything. I mean, what really struck me is that everything feels safe. All right, here we are in Budapest, also known as Budapest, as the locals say, and we're crossing the Danube river right now. There's the parliament building, which is absolutely stunningly gorgeous. It's one of these things that you can't believe that people used to make things like that. And we're crossing the. The famous river Banub right here. Look at this. This. This splits the city. It's really rather remarkable. And I have to say, more than anything else, this is my second time here in Hungary. But more than anything else, it's a beautiful day out. The air is perfect and crisp, but it's clean, it's pleasant, it's buzzing. There's just a feeling of, I don't know, safety. And, you know, there's really no homeless people and drugs and vagrants and migrants and all the other ants and things like that. So it's really, really nice. We're gonna head to CPAC tomorrow. We're doing an event with the Danube Institute. It's gonna be a little bit of a European Rubin Report reunion. More in a bit. We were walking around at 2am after, you know, going out to dinners and hanging and chatting with people. And, you know, I didn't have to hide my phone in my pocket. We were in London just a few days before that, and people were saying, oh, you don't want to walk around with your phone just, you know, out in your hand. You gotta. You gotta hide it. And there everybody was safe. People were out and about. You don't see homeless people everywhere. It felt like an experiment of a successful city. It was clean, you know, you see. You see sort of old school Hungarian things, like a little kind of hole in the wall where you can get some goulash. And then you see beautiful hotels and chain Restaurants and all of that stuff. But it really strikes me as a place that is open and liberal in the right sense of the word, meaning that there are different types of people there. But it's within the prism that is the Hungarian culture and the weather. The weather. We were there in the springtime, so the weather was absolutely great. And the Danube is. Is beautiful. And the geography and, you know, even just because it's sort of. Even as a city, it's a little bit mountainous. You know, you get multiple layers and levels and lots of stairs. So it's just a really cool place to be. Can you talk about your experience at cpac? What was the energy like there? How was it different than our London and your trip in February? Yeah, you know, CPAC Hungary was super interesting to me because there's a deep connection right now between what's going on in America and what's going on in Hungary. If what drove Trump to becoming president was the idea of America for Americans, like build a wall and we either have a country or we don't, well, Hungary is very much dealing with it right there. They are fined 1 million euros a day to keep their borders closed, meaning to just control their own borders and decide who can be in Hungary or not. The EU finds them a million dollars a day. They're willing to do it because they get other benefits by being part of the eu. But it's a really bizarre hostage situation. And that really was the backdrop of much of what was discussed at cpac, started by Prime Minister Victor Orban. This is like the beginning of RoboCop. We lost the studio. Believe it or not, in America, that helps. We are not in studio today. Normalize this idea. We are at cpac, Hungry America from Budapest. And it's very exciting morning, but we are live. All right. I'm here in Budapest at cpac. Hungary, the age of patriots is the tagline for the event. Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, just spoke. There are diplomats and public speakers from quite literally all over the world here. I'll be on the main stage in a few minutes. We're doing a live show. Live. Reuben report right over here. Here, you can turn the camera. There's a chair and people and all that good stuff. And then we'll be doing some. A live Rubin report tonight with about 20 guests, probably the most guests I've ever had on one show, except maybe for election night in America. But it's very exciting. You know, we're in a very small country here. Hungary has, I think, 9.7 million people, but it is in a very critical part of Europe where they are trying to defend their borders, defend their culture. And I think you understand that has a little something to do with what we're trying to do in America. And it doesn't have to do with skin color or religion or anything else. There are cultural values that every nation shares with their own citizens. And if you don't defend that, then you don't have a nation. So that seems to be what this conference is about. That's a bit about what I'm going to talk about when I get up there with a little bit of smacking around the mainstream media a bit and more. So stay tuned. Thank you. It's good to see you. And something like 2 or 3% have died on German. So let's count our blessings and let's be grateful for a lot.
- [08:46]
Balash Orban
Looking like 10, 15 years ago, I.
- [08:48]
Dave Rubin
Remember that that's who we are and what we are doing because we have a very special language.
- [08:54]
Balash Orban
Only 12 million people on earth is speaking this kind of life. Global Orchard is under strength with the.
- [09:02]
Dave Rubin
South African government denying that they are doing it. So they go to America and they deny doing it.
- [09:10]
Balash Orban
And then they go to South Africa.
- [09:11]
Dave Rubin
And they say, we will not stop doing it. How are you? Great. Nice to see you. Good to see you. With our allies, our children, scattered across the country in the largest migration presence in the history. And yes, that's why I'm here. When I gave my talk, what I was trying to focus on is how do you deal? Every country has to deal with that themselves. But how do you deal with that with a media that's also lying about you the entire time? So if you're the good guy in the story and you're the one saying, hey, I just want to defend my family, I want. These are the values we believe in. This is our country. We just don't want everyone taking all that away from us. And the media is calling you the bad guy the entire time. How do you deal with that? So that's a little bit more of my expertise. And I sat down with Balash Orban, who's Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief political director, although both Orban's not related, apparently. And we talked about how do you deal with not only the physical problem of the border and dealing with the EU and making sure, again, that Hungary is just for Hungarian people, not that they happen to be a Christian nation, but not that they happen to be all Christians. There's 100,000 Jews that live in Hungary it's by far the safest place in Europe for Jews. And there's other minorities there as well, obviously. But how do you deal with like a physical sort of attack on your country and then the media attack on your country? And I think we came up with some decent ideas to push back against that freedom. I have not had any goulash or anything else yet today. No goulash. We gotta do that. Where's the goulash? They've got. I see a lot of carrots, I see a lot of crudite, but no goulash. I'm starting to think it's not a real thing. It's kulash. Just a rumor.
- [11:25]
Balash Orban
I think it's just a rumor.
- [11:29]
Dave Rubin
You want to tell people what you're doing right now. I'm about to go on the main stage here at CPAC Hungary. I'll be giving a solo talk and then I'll be joined by Victor Orban's political director, Balash Orban, no relation. A lot of Orbans here in this Hungary, apparently. And we'll be talking about freedom and borders and sovereignty and all that good stuff. Stay tuned. Where's my speech? You give me the speech. How do I do this? I just get up there and say whatever I want. How are you? Nice to see you. Thank you. Thank you. It is wonderful to be here at CPAC Hungary. I must say that I watched the opening video intro of some of the mainstream media coverage of this event. And first, a very warm welcome to all of you right wing extremists. It's great to be here with you. Very exciting. Particularly in Europe, there is an assault on free speech right now that probably is the single biggest issue on the globe more than anything else. We've got immigration issues, there are economic issues, there are security issues. But the assault on free speech, the attacks that we are seeing across Europe, where if you tweet a meme or you say something against the government or you make an unsavory joke that you're going to have police show up at your door. This notion, I think, attacks the very bedrock of the ideas that we are here to defend today. And I'm particularly to be particularly honored to be here in Hungary. This is my second time here. And it's interesting. Hungary, which is a country of, I think, 9.7 million people, a fairly small country that you guys, if America is the epicenter of all of this for the globe, that Hungary has become the epicenter of freedom for Europe, you're doing it right here. You really are Doing it right. And one of the things that I think I'll discuss with Balaj Orban in a few minutes with is that when you do things right for a while, it doesn't seem that exciting. Right. People stop remembering that things could be a lot worse. And I can tell you, having been involved in the culture wars in America for the past decade plus, that all of the things that we're fighting, this crazed sense of wokeism, whether it's related to the transgender nonsense, whether it's related to race or whether it's related to borders or any of these things, these ideas are hacking away every single day. They are hacking away at our basic freedoms.
- [14:24]
Balash Orban
What are some of the main differences.
- [14:25]
Dave Rubin
That you saw when it comes to the politics of Hungary versus a country like London? You know, most of Europe just seems to be falling on the sword. They, I think, have resigned themselves to a future that's not really their future. I don't think it's what the average person in London wants. I don't think it's what the average person in Paris wants or any of the big cities in any of the Western European nations. But they've elected leaders over the course of really two decades at this point that have said, we are going to open up our borders, we're going to allow all of these people in from other places. It doesn't mean that these people, people are all bad. It doesn't mean that one religion is specifically bad or anything else. But when you allow all sorts of people in and they have all sorts of competing ideas and you had a set of values as a nation, there was a set of values that was a British set of values. Doesn't mean it was perfect, but it was British. Same thing for France, same thing for any of these countries. And then you let people in who don't really care about your values, and then you don't create the conditions for these people to succeed. So then they end up getting on the government dole, they want government benefits. And then you're actually then costing the person who's legally in your country, who's one of your citizens more because you're saying, oh, these people are going to come in and we're going to give them stuff and we're not going to assimilate properly. I mean, the United States has assimilated people from all over the world better than any country in the history of the world. That's the grand experiment of the United States States that largely has worked. Europe, it was not exactly that way. They were like, oh, you can move here, and Pakistanis will live here, and native British people will live here, and Africans are going to live here. And so their experiment was more tenuous, even though it's older. And now they've created a situation where it seemingly is untenable. For the first time, Muslims marking the holy month of Ramadan have been invited to break fast at a royal residence. Windsor Castle, once the symbol of British.
- [16:20]
Balash Orban
Royalty and heritage, now echoes with Ramadan prayer.
- [16:32]
Dave Rubin
And then when you get. You push people to a point where then eventually they kind of do become racist in some sense. Because if you push people enough and say, your country's not yours, your values are not yours, your food and your culture and your music and your history, all of it was bad and negative and your founding was bad, and all of those things that we see here, you do that to people enough, they will start fighting back, maybe in ways that will either be. Will be genuinely racist in some sense, if that's the word, or perceived as racist, or using racism as a mechanism to push back against. So I would say Hungary right now, out of all of the countries in all of Europe, meaning Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Europe, etc. Hungary, to me, is the strongest. I think some of the other Eastern and Central European nations are doing just fine. Hungary really is sort of. I would say, the. It's the main bulwark against the craziness. And Western Europe is largely screwed up. And I don't sense, you know, after spending a lot of time in London and wandering around those streets, like, you try to find me a native Brit who is bullish on his country, and you gotta find somebody who's like six pints in and willing to tell you that. Cause otherwise it's hard to find. Does it shock you that Hungary is the example for other European countries? Yeah, that's a good question. Because does it shock me that Hungary is the example? In some ways it is shocking because you would think that, you know, the UK and the British Empire, whatever would be left of it, that they would be leading countries out of this. Or we think of France, for all the problems with France, like, they're this great nation. You don't really think of Hungary as this great nation. You don't really think of it much at all. Like Hungary, you think of Hungarian goulash. That's pretty much it, right? You could probably think of one European basketball player or something like that. But again, it's a country that has an unbelievable history because of its geography. So having survived Nazism and having survived Communism, what's obvious to me is that they learned the lessons. That's the thing. These people are serious about protecting their nation this time because their ancestors paid the price for it. So while it's shocking, I guess, in some sense that you get a leader like Viktor Orban who's willing to stand up to the Europeans, you know, he's the Trump of his country, in essence, he is just saying no to everybody. The European Union, they come in there, they want more money, they want open borders, they want. And he just says no to everybody. So he's their Trump. So I guess in some sense, it's not shocking. They were hit both ways. Communists and Nazis, they survived, they got their country back, and now they're fighting for it. And in some sense, you know, being a relatively small country with a relatively small, largely homogenous population, that's their strength, right? Like that ends up becoming the strength because they have a certain cohesion around a history. And that's what I think most other Western nations are struggling with. There's no cohesion around a history. If you have a certain set of people that aren't proud of their history and then another set of people who come in and are, and are there to basically crap all over the history, Hungary doesn't have that fraying within its. Within its sort of logos. And I think that, that, that's part of the key. All right, so it's the middle of day one here at cpac. I spoke earlier, been doing interviews all day long. I'm going to meet at the prime minister, minister's, I guess we call it palace residence with Prime Minister Viktor Orban. If you listen to the media, he's a very scary man who says all sorts of scary things. I've met him once before. He seems like a nice guy. I said, Mr. Prime Minister, how you doing? I'm good. He was like that. Like, he seems like a nice guy to me. And we're going to talk about Hungary, we're going to talk about freedom, we're going to talk about the connection between America and much more. They're actually not letting my cameraman in the room, but they will be videotaping it, and we'll grab some clips of that and then we will have some Hungarian goulash. Hey, good to see you. How are you? Yahir Netanyahu. We're going to do a proper sit down in the free state of Florida, which I call the other promised land. You come from the real promised land, Florida, the other promised land. So I only have one question. For you right now, which is something that you brought up in your talk a few minutes ago, which is that even if you don't care about the Jews. I care about the Jews. I'm Jewish. You care about Israel. Your last name is Netanyahu. Even if you don't care about the Jews and you don't care about Israel per se, there is a reason you should care about what is happening in Israel. And I thought maybe you could just explain that for a few minutes and then we'll do a much longer version when we're back in that other free state.
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Balash Orban
The pro Palestinian riots and protests, it's not really about Palestinians and it's not really about Israel. It's the same people that did the George Floyd riots. It is the same people that are antifa people. This is the Palestinian flag is the new hammer and sickle, red communist flag. This is just an updated version. This is about the desire to destroy Western civilization. You have the red green alliance. The red is the Marxists, the green is the Islamists. They have different reasons, but they have common goal. The destruction of Western civilization, the destruction of Judeo Christian civilization. Israel is just the first target because it's the smallest. But you know, America is the real target. The Iranian regime, the Islamist regime in Iran. How do they call us in Israel? They call us the small Satan, but they call America the big Satan. And we are just the.
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Dave Rubin
And you said that Europe is the.
- [22:11]
Balash Orban
Middle, sir, but we're just the appetizer. You guys are the main course. And Iran is building intercontinental missiles. They don't need it to reach Israel. Their current missiles already cover Israel. They're building it to be able to threaten America, to be able to threaten the east coast of the United States. What we saw in the last two years in American elite universities. And by the way, the biggest funder of American elite universities is Qatar. It's a country of the Muslim Brotherhood, which we outlawed throughout the Middle East. Outlawed in Saudi Arabia, outlawed in the United Arab Emirates, outlawed in Egypt. It is the same ideology of isis, Taliban, Al Qaeda, Hamas. And they are the biggest sponsor of this organization and they're hosting them on their soil. Just like Afghanistan hosted Bin Laden and al Qaeda after 9 11. They are hosting the leaders of Hamas after October 7th. And they are brainwashing through influencers and through the academia, American youth. To hate America, to hate Christianity, to hate the history and heritage of America instead of being proud of it. What we saw in the colleges, they've been waving Pasadena flags while burning American flags. They would Take the American flag out of the pole. You remember that? And then you'd think raise the Palestinian flag. So this is not about Israel. They are vandalizing the link. You know, monuments of Lincoln and George Washington. This is nothing about Israel. This is about the desire to destroy America and Israel.
- [23:44]
Dave Rubin
Good to see you, my friend.
- [23:45]
Balash Orban
Good to see you. Thank you.
- [23:46]
Dave Rubin
I do remember you. That's right. How are you?
- [23:50]
Balash Orban
Welcome back to Budapest Mar.
- [23:53]
Dave Rubin
How are you? Six times a week in the general. Six times a week.
- [23:59]
Balash Orban
Sometimes seven, sometimes multi shops.
- [24:01]
Dave Rubin
What is it?
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Balash Orban
I knew that guy.
- [24:04]
Dave Rubin
What's going on? Oh, I miss. I missed a text. Is that the only interest me? Okay, all right, let me take a look. Okay. Either way, we may. We may try to leave the 5:45 just to get there a few minutes early.
- [25:04]
Balash Orban
What's he.
- [25:05]
Dave Rubin
How are you? Hi, it's nice to see you, sir. Fingers back and I didn't want to hit you. Nice to see you.
- [25:27]
Balash Orban
It's a new style of friendly.
- [25:35]
Dave Rubin
Great pleasure to meet you, sir.
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Balash Orban
Michael, welcome back. Responsibility in Kiev, but we had to go back there, you know.
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Dave Rubin
I mean, this is nuts. Anyway, I'm just about to do a show with 10 guests with no rundown, no run through, no papers have been handed to me. I don't even know all the guests. The wind, this kid's got to very windy. Don't worry. Now you're gonna see. Is Dave Rubin a professional? We're gonna find out.
- [26:14]
Balash Orban
Okay.
- [26:15]
Dave Rubin
Here. Okay, ready? Yeah, Ready.
- [26:16]
Balash Orban
Just do your monologue. Stand up comedy, 10 minutes and then.
- [26:21]
Dave Rubin
Next guest invite Cecilia Hazai onto stage. Okay. All right.
- [26:24]
Balash Orban
If it doesn't say a clip, there's no clip.
- [26:26]
Dave Rubin
All of my broadcasting skills right now in one. I know, I know.
- [26:29]
Balash Orban
This is the real test. Okay, ready?
- [26:48]
Dave Rubin
Thank you. For our special guest. Thank you. Thank you. Well.
- [27:00]
Balash Orban
It is tape.
- [27:15]
Dave Rubin
Thank you. I must say, first off, I don't think I've ever started a show and been the last one at the show. So welcome to everybody. Thank you for being patient. I do have a good reason. I was in a small group chat with the prime minister next door just now and that guy's got an awful lot of security. There was no way they were letting me out of the room. So I appreciate your patience and it's good to be here with everybody. So thank you. Thank you. Just spent an hour with your prime minister who was so unbelievably impressive to see stay with. Really. He deserves the applause. Even though he got me here a little late. He was so impressive. Not only talking about what the issues are. I mean, everyone knows what the issues are, right? The issues are immigration and migration and there's economic issues and there's obviously Russia, Ukraine and all of those things. But listening to him just for this last hour, talk about the philosophic roots of why he thinks the way he thinks and some of the reasons that he's doing the pro family policies here in Hungary and. And just things that are just not really talked about that much at the national level. So it was a pleasure to be there. And just generally speaking, when I come here, I find the people, you're all in the fight. You know, I go to, I travel all over the world and there's a lot of countries right now that the people, they're kind of nervous about the direction their countries are going in. I just spent a couple weeks in the uk and you walk around London and you talk to these people and there's a real feeling that they're giving their country away, or perhaps that they've actually given it away already and that there isn't much hope. And it's like that, obviously in other parts, particularly I would say in Western Europe. There's certainly a feeling of that in France, there's a feeling of that in Germany, but it doesn't feel like that here. It feels like you guys have kind of stemmed the tide that was coming.
- [29:10]
Balash Orban
This is.
- [29:10]
Dave Rubin
For anyone who's never been to Hungary, what is a message that you'd like to get across after. After having been there for a couple of days? I think the most important thing that I saw about Hungary firsthand was that what you hear about Hungary versus the reality of Hungary are very, very different. So if you just listen to the media, oh, they're a right wing, they're this far right nation and Orban is a modern Nazi and Hitler and far right far right. All of that nonsense that the media lies about and everything else. You know, we did a live Rubin report there where it was literally probably the biggest show I've ever done. We had a couple hundred people in the audience and I had about, I don't know, ten or a dozen guests that we rotated in and out. And they were from all over walks of life. There were political thinkers there, there were artists, there were actors, there were musicians. It was as culturally rich as any show that you could have done in the United States. So the idea that it's this nation and just because they're Hungarian and they're fighting for Hungary, that that somehow means they're all xenophobes. Or racists or any of the other silly things is just kind of very thin. I think most people watching this can understand that. I would say the other part is that it really is nice to see having been someone that has spent a lot of time traversing the United States of America, where I go to plenty of our cities that are depressed and that are not safe, or I lived in a place like New York City under Giuliani, where it was. And now I go back and I see how it's just been so severely degraded. And that's not just in America. I go to London and I see over the. Every time I've gone back for the last 15 years, it's worse each time. Or you go to France and you see that it's worse each time. And the homelessness and the migrant situation, all that, where then you go to Hungary and you're like, oh, it doesn't have to be like this. In some sense, it reminds me of Florida, where I walk around Florida, and you're like, oh, it's. It's normal and sane and decent and good, and that's what it could be. But you have to vote in the right people. That's probably not even the first thing. The first thing is you gotta kind of fix yourself right at Jordan Peterson, clean your room, kind of figure out what it is that you're doing in your life, start your family, your values, your community, all of those things, and then hopefully that will extrapolate up to the political sphere. And that's what then gets you a leader like Orban, who's trying to fix his country. It's what we did in America, you know, it wasn't, in some sense, Trump was the signal. There was enough of us, especially Trump 47, that basically were like, oh, this is our last chance to fix the nation. We better get on board. And that's what the wide tent thing is that Trump is doing with MAGA right now. So I would say go to Hungary and see what's going on there. And guess what? You're going to be able to exercise your free speech. You're going to be able to go to a bar at 3am and have a good time and you will eat plenty of goulash. This is the Danubin Report. That's a good one. You get it? You get it? Well, that's good, that's good.