Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary is currently in Washington, DC in the United States for NATO’s 75th anniversary summit. However, after the event, he is reportedly taking a trip down south to Palm Beach, Florida where he is meeting with Former President Donald Trump on his Mar-a-Lago property.
The two statesmen met back in March of this year as well, when PM Orbán paid a similar visit to President Trump. A lot has happened since then.
President Trump has since become the first president in US history to be convicted in a criminal court. Many pundits claimed that this would end his electoral chances—however, Orbán stood by him, and publicly defended him on the social media platform X.
And it seems his loyalty in trouble is paying off for Orbán. In the aftermath of the conviction, President Trump raised a record $52 million in donations to his campaign within 24 hours. He was also able to maintain his narrow lead in the national polling aggregate by RealClearPolitics.
On 28 June, President Trump took on President Biden in a televized debate, which has shifted the odds very much in his favour. President Biden appeared dazed, confused, and was barely coherent. His dismal display widened Trump’s lead in polling and even prompted some of the sitting Democrat members of Congress to call on Biden to step aside as their party’s nominee.
So, now, PM Orbán is meeting with the heavy favourite to win the US presidential election this year, something which many thought was not the case when the two last met in early March.
The Hungarian premier has also stated multiple times that
he believes President Trump’s reelection is the only thing that can bring peace to Eastern Europe again
and end the Russo–Ukrainian war. President Trump is frequently bringing this up at his campaign event as a talking point, while usually splintering in compliments to PM Orbán, such as he is ‘a very strong leader’ and ‘a very smart man’. PM Orbán, in turn, made ‘Make Europe Great Again’, an obvious reference to Donald Trump’s long-used campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ the official motto of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Evidently, the left-leaning mainstream media is not too happy with another meeting between the two right-wing allies.
An article on Time Magazine’s website draws attention to PM Orbán’s recent meeting with President Putin, and warns that ‘the visit is likely to fan concerns that the Hungarian leader is working as an intermediary between Putin and Trump’. Evidently, there is no real basis for any such concerns.
Meanwhile, President Trump is preparing for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 15–18 July, where he will be announcing who his Vice Presidential nominee will be as well.
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