Hungary’s Orban Skips NATO Summit for Meeting with Donald Trump

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban left the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., to meet with former president Trump in Florida on Thursday.

The New York Times broke the story first, citing an official from the Trump campaign and a close friend of the former president. The report didn’t specify what they would talk about at the impromptu gathering, but Orban had been traveling the world in the last week since he assumed the role of president of the European Union.

Orban arrived this week in the U.S. to attend a multi-day NATO Summit, which celebrated the 75th anniversary since the founding of the organization. The summit also took place at a moment when many members were concerned about the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as the future of the European Union.

Orban used his presidency to begin discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, before meeting Trump.

Orban, who has long admired Trump and even invoked him with the quip “Hungary will make Europe great again,” met with Orban in Florida at Mar-a-Lago when he was courting foreign policy in the U.S. in March.

Orban, in an interview with German author and journalist Paul Ronzheimer, said there was a “very high chance” that the next American President would not be the same as the one who is currently in office. He refused to answer questions about the fitness of Biden for the job.

Orban has not been a favorite of the rest of Europe, especially after his recent flurry of foreign visits. A diplomat from the EU confirmed that the majority of EU member states have already reduced their participation in the informal councils that will take place in Hungary during its presidency.

Officials have also discussed in some capitals how to use EU Treaties to limit Orban’s impact. The diplomat said, “EU institutions shouldn’t have fallen into Orban’s trap and Hungary shouldn’t have been allowed the role of presidency in the first instance.”

The diplomat stated, “The EU legislation should be used to protect both the Union and unity, and not an imaginary idea of imagined unity.”

Orban’s trip to Russia stunned many of his colleagues. Josep Borrell, the European Union Foreign Policy chief, issued a statement stating that Orban does not represent the EU at all during these visits and has never been given a mandate by the union to engage in discussions with foreign officials.

Petteri Orpo, the Finnish Prime Minister, described Orban’s trip to Putin as “disturbing”. He wrote on social media platform X about how the visit showed “disregard of the duties of EU presidency and undermines the interests of the European Union.”

Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote on X: “Mr. Orban may be abusing his position as EU President but he’s not representing NATO or EU.”

Landsbergis said, “He is not speaking for me or any other country but his own.”