A Week After Meeting Putin, Hungary's Viktor Orbán To Meet With Trump
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will meet with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, just one week after the authoritarian leader met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Orbán was already in the country to attend a NATO summit in Washington, where he reaffirmed that Hungary will not assist NATO or Ukraine as the country defends itself from Russian attacks.
An unnamed source close to Trump told The Guardian that Trump and Orbán will meet at Mar-a-Lago at 7 p.m. According to the outlet, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, also met with a Hungarian delegation while they were in Washington.
Orbán, who has openly endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, did not consult the Biden administration prior to the trip.
There’s no love lost between the two camps. U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman sharply critiqued the autocrat earlier this month while speaking at an Independence Day reception in Budapest.
“We have no other ally or partner — not a single one — that similarly, overtly and tirelessly, campaigns for a specific candidate in an election in the United States of America, seemingly convinced that, no matter what, it only helps Hungary, or at least helps him personally,” Pressman said.
“The U.S.-Hungary relationship is based on the shared aspirations of our people — Hungarians and Americans — to live freely under democracy, rule of law, and security,” he added. “The Hungarian government would do well not to cheapen that with politics.”
