Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán raised eyebrows on Thursday when he ditched the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., to meet with former President Donald Trump.
That’s according to Fox News, which cited a source familiar with the meeting to report that Orbán, who just assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union last week, departed D.C. and traveled to Florida to sit down with Trump at Mar-a-Lago — it’s not clear what was on the agenda at the impromptu meeting.
More from Fox News:
Orban arrived in the U.S. this week to attend the multi-day NATO summit, which celebrates the 75th anniversary of the organization’s founding and occurs at a time when members remain concerned about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and what the future holds for the broader European Union.
Hungary’s presidency will last six months as part of a rotating leadership scheme for the bloc and does not provide much actual power, but Orban wasted no time in using that office to start holding discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping before his meeting with Trump.
Trump shared a photo he took with Orbán on Truth Social, which the prime minister had posted on social media along with a message of peace.
The presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee wrote, “Thank you Viktor. There must be PEACE, and quickly. Too many people have died in a war that should have never started! DJT.”
Peace mission 5.0
It was an honour to visit President @realDonaldTrump at Mar-a-Lago today. We discussed ways to make #peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it! pic.twitter.com/AiTRsdexM5— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) July 12, 2024
Billed by the liberal media as an “authoritarian leader,” Orbán has publicly endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential bid and said in a recent interview that there is a “very, very high chance that the next American president will be not the same president who is today.”
Orbán drew outrage from his fellow European Union leaders when he met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin last week at the Kremlin in Moscow — the Hungarian leader’s crime seemingly being that he dared to discuss prospects for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine. The trip to Moscow came after Orbán sat down with Zelenskyy in Ukraine, proposing the possibility of an immediate cease-fire with Russia.
“The number of countries that can talk to both warring sides is diminishing,” Orbán said. “Hungary is slowly becoming the only country in Europe that can speak to everyone.”
U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman expressed the Biden administration’s discontent with the prime minister while speaking at an Independence Day reception in Budapest, according to the U.S. embassy in Hungary.
“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,” he 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,” Pressman added. “The Hungarian government would do well not to cheapen that with politics.”
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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