President Donald Trump tends to have little tolerance for leaders who insult or seek to manipulate him. Except, that is, when it comes to Hungary‘s prime minister, Viktor Orban. For some reason, Trump appears happy to enable Orban’s continued effort to undermine his authority and agenda.
Orban hides his disdain for Trump behind only the thinnest veil. While he’s always quick to publicly praise Trump as a great leader, Orban is far quicker and more energetic in undermining Trump behind closed doors. So assured is Orban of Trump’s blindness to what lies behind his veil, he’s insulting the president just prior to his White House visit next week.
On Monday, Orban was asked by Italian journalists whether he regards Trump’s recent sanctions on two major Russian oil producers as a mistake. Those new sanctions reflect Trump’s increased pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to pursue serious peace negotiations with Ukraine. Trump introduced the sanctions after canceling a planned summit with Putin in Hungary over concerns that Putin remains unwilling to end the war in Ukraine. Most U.S. allies and partners, including India, are now taking steps to reduce their Russian energy imports.
Not so Orban.
Responding to the journalists’ question, he explained that Trump had, in fact, made a mistake. “From the Hungarian point of view, yes,” he said, “and so we will try to find a way out, especially for Hungary.” Apparently angry with Trump for canceling the Budapest summit with Putin, Orban explained that “Hungary is very dependent on Russian oil and gas.”
Does this sound like a leader who truly supports Trump’s peace agenda? Does it sound like a leader who truly values his special relationship with the American president? Does it sound like a leader who respects America?
Few leaders would risk Trump’s ire so close to a White House visit. But Orban believes himself special. He clearly believes that he has Trump under his leash. He believes this, in part, because he has successfully wooed CPAC, MAGA influencers, and other American conservative thinkers to his corner. Regularly hosting lavish conferences to celebrate his admittedly robust policies on border security, immigration, and family values, Orban has bought the blindness of these Americans to his foreign policy agenda. Namely, his agenda of sacrificing Hungarian sovereignty to the Chinese Communist Party and prostrating it before the altar of cheap Russian energy.
Orban’s obsequious deference to China is particularly striking.
In return for massive investments, Orban actively obstructs European Union action to address rampant Chinese trade manipulations, espionage, and broader threats to its member states’ national sovereignty. While Orban is rightly aggravated by the EU’s excessive bureaucracy and centralized power, he has no similar qualms about subordinating Hungary to Beijing’s Communist dominion. Indeed, he salutes China as the nation that “determines the course of world economic and world political processes.”
And if the argument that Orban has prostituted his nation’s sovereignty to Beijing seems far-fetched, consider that his government even allowed Chinese security officials to physically search Hungarian parliamentarians for pro-Taiwan emblems during Xi Jinping’s 2024 visit to Budapest. Orban’s top agent in this agenda is his foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto. Rebuking Trump administration efforts to reduce the risks posed by China to the West, Szijjarto said, “We don’t see China as a risk, but as a country with which cooperation offers us immense opportunities.”
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Orban’s government adopts a similarly anti-U.S. perspective in its Russia relations. In return for cheap Russian energy supplies, Orban has obstructed tougher EU sanctions action against Moscow. He has blamed Ukraine for defending itself rather than Russia for attacking a European democracy. In so doing, Orban has undermined efforts to end the bloodiest and most destabilizing European war since 1945. Orban has also encouraged Putin’s growing threats toward Hungary’s NATO allies and, as with Russia’s nuclear weapons system test on Monday, against the United States specifically. Even then, Putin plainly views Orban as a patsy rather than a partner.
It’s unclear why Trump thinks this foreign leader is worthy of a White House visit. Nevertheless, Trump should bear close attention not simply to what Orban says, but what he does.
After all, nearly everything Orban does runs counter to Trump and America’s interests.