Trump heaps praise on Hungary’s Viktor Orban in White House meeting

(WASHINGTON) President Donald Trump welcomed Hungary’s autocratic leader Viktor Orban to the White House on Friday, praising him repeatedly as a “great leader” as met sat to discuss trade and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“I like and respect him,” Trump said as he and Orban sat for lunch with their teams in the Cabinet Room, specifically applauding Orban’s views on immigration and crime.

Orban in turn celebrated what he said will be a “golden age between the United States and Hungary” with Trump’s return to office.

Orban is in Washington seeking an exemption to new U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s largest oil companies and their subsidiaries that will go into effect later this month.

President Trump was asked if he would grant Hungary’s request.

“We’re looking at it because it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,” Trump replied, expressing sympathy for Hungary’s geographic reliance on Russia for energy resources.

“It’s a big country. But they don’t have sea. They don’t have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem,” Trump said before turning to criticize European countries he said don’t have that issue but continue to buy Russian oil.

Orban called the issue “vital” for Hungarians.

Orban was recently going to play host to a summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, before Trump called the proposed meeting off amid frustration with the lack of progress in peace talks.

Trump said they had picked Budapest, Hungary, as the location because both he and Putin liked Orban.

On Friday, Trump reiterated that if he and Putin were to meet, he would like to do it in Budapest. Trump said he and Orban would be discussing a potential summit with Putin.

“We were talking about that with Viktor, he understands Putin and knows him very well,” Trump said, adding: “I think that Viktor feels we’re going to get that war ended in the not too distant future.”

As Orban gave his view on the war, Trump turned to him and asked, “So you would say that Ukraine cannot win that war?”

“You know, a miracle can happen,” Orban replied. 

Trump previously welcomed Orban to the White House during his first term, in 2019, breaking from his predecessors who had shunned Hungary’s prime minister from Washington.

The two men met several times when Trump was out of office at his Florida estate, including during the summer of the 2024 campaign and after Trump became president-elect.

Orban has been embraced by many prominent American conservatives over his positions on immigration and LGBTQ issues, and has spoken several times at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Orban hosted a CPAC event in Hungary earlier this year.

Trump on Friday said it was an “honor to have a friend of mine here” at the White House.

“He’s done a fantastic job. He’s a very powerful man within his country … He’s run a really great country, and he’s got no crime, he’s got no problems, like some countries do,” Trump said.