Trump met with Hungary’s autocratic leader Orban

Former President Donald Trump Met with the Hungarian Prime Minister on Friday, Viktor Orbán, Continued adoption of autocratic world leaders seeking re-election to the American presidency.

Orbán’s trip to the United States also included a stop in Washington, where he gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation, which has close ties to Trump. The appearance came on Thursday, the same day as President Biden’s State of the Union address, which was held at the Capitol, just blocks from the conservative think tank’s headquarters.

It was An extraordinary fact: A foreign leader who visits the United States and stops in the nation’s capital without meeting with the current president and, instead, with his political rival.

Trump has repeatedly praised Orbán over the years, often extolling what he sees as a strength in leadership during the election campaign. He also hosted Orbán at the White House in 2019, an invitation the previous two US presidents purposely did not extend.

Orbán has worked to undermine Hungary’s key democratic institutions since coming to power in 2010. A self-proclaimed defender of “liberal” Christian democracy, he has advocated for the rights of LGBTQ+ people and restrictions on immigration., while also cracking down on the country’s judiciary and press. He has also won praise from conservative populists and the conservative US establishment, reinterpreting Trump’s long-standing slogan and frequently calling “Make Europe Great Again” in public statements.

After appearing at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Orbán wrote “support families, fight illegal immigration and defend the sovereignty of our nations,” he said.

Hungarian leader He later flew from Washington to Palm Beach (Florida) to see Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Friday’s meeting featured some symbolism usually reserved for two sitting world leaders.

The two leaders formally greeted each other by posing on a red carpet draped with American and Hungarian flags at the estate’s entrance.

Inside, with their parties facing each other at long conference tables, the two men “held meetings to discuss a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States, including the paramount importance of strong and secure borders to protect each nation’s sovereignty,” According to the Trump campaign. In the evening there was a concert inside the venue, with Trump taking the stage to praise Orbán.

“There is no one better, smarter or better leader than Viktor Orbán,” Trump said Friday night. The former president, in an apparent nod to the Hungarian leader’s autocratic approach, went on to say that Orbán is “an uncontroversial figure because he says, ‘This is how it’s going to be’ and that’s it.” That’s it? He is the boss. No, he is a great leader.”

Orban expressed his support for Trump on X, saying the world “needs leaders in the world who are respected and can bring peace. He is one of them. Come back and give us peace, Mr. President.

President Biden criticized the Trump-Orban meeting on Friday, saying it showed the authoritarian tendencies of his chief rival.

“Do you know who Trump met today at Mar-a-Lago? Orbán of Hungary, who clearly said he doesn’t believe democracy works,” Biden said at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania. “He’s looking for a dictatorship… that’s what he’s meeting with. “I see a future in which we defend democracy, not diminish it.”

The president’s remarks came a day after he hosted Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson in a State of the Union address marking Sweden’s entry into the NATO alliance. Orbán initially opposed Sweden joining the alliance, as well as EU aid to Ukraine during the war with Russia. Despite continuing tensions between Russia and the West as a result of the war, he has maintained close ties with the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(c) 2024, The Washington Post