Then President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Oval Office on May 13, 2019.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Trump met with Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán this week.Trump called Orbán his “friend” and lauded him for his knowledge of world affairs. Orbán recently caught flak for railing against race “mixing” in European societies.
Former President Donald Trump with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán this week and later praised the authoritarian leader for his knowledge of world affairs and recent election victory.
Trump announced that the pair had met in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
“Great spending time with my friend, Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary,” Trump wrote.
“We discussed many interesting topics — few people know as much about what is going on in the world today,” Trump added.
The former president said that the pair also celebrated Orbán’s “great electoral victory in April.”
Trump’s meeting with Orbán comes a week after the latter came under fire for berating Western Europeans for “mixing with non-Europeans.”
“We move, we work elsewhere, we mix within Europe,” the Hungarian leader at the time, per Radio Free Europe, adding that Hungarians “don’t want to be a mixed-race” or a “multiethnic” group.
Orbán’s rant prompted a longtime advisor to quit her post, comparing her former boss’ words to “pure Nazi text” that invoked propaganda similar to that of Nazi official Joseph Goebbels.
Orbán and Trump are both scheduled to speak at the CPAC conservative conference in Dallas, Texas, this week.
Trump’s celebration of Orbán’s electoral victory comes after he endorsed the authoritarian leader in January. Orbán, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was re-elected for a fourth term in April.
“Viktor Orban of Hungary truly loves his Country and wants safety for his people,” Trump said in a written statement sent through the Save America PAC that was seen by Insider.
“He has done a powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary, stopping illegal immigration, creating jobs, trade, and should be allowed to continue to do so in the upcoming Election,” Trump added in the statement.
This was not the first time Trump had endorsed a far-right foreign leader. In October, Trump backed Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, saying they had a “great” friendship.
Trump has also praised several authoritarian leaders, lauding everyone from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Chinese President Xi Jinping.