Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban departed the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to meet with former President Donald Trump in Florida, a source familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital. The New York Times first reported the story, citing a Trump campaign official and a person close to the former president. The report did not specify the topics of discussion for this impromptu meeting. Orban, who recently assumed the role of president of the European Union, has been traveling extensively over the past week.
Orban arrived in the U.S. this week to attend the multi-day NATO summit, which celebrates the 75th anniversary of the organization’s founding and comes at a time of heightened concern among members regarding Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the future of the broader European Union.
Hungary’s presidency, part of a rotating leadership scheme for the bloc, will last six months and does not provide much actual power. However, Orban has already used his office to hold discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping before his meeting with Trump.
Orban has long admired Trump, even using the former president’s slogan to quip that Hungary would “make Europe great again.” Trump met with Orban at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in March, attempting to court foreign policy support in the U.S. During an interview with German journalist and author Paul Ronzheimer, Orban remarked that there is a “very, very high chance that the next American president will be not the same president who is today,” and he avoided commenting on President Biden’s fitness for office.
Orban’s visit to Russia surprised many of his peers, leading European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell to issue a statement emphasizing that Orban has no mandate from the union in discussions with foreign leaders and that he is “not representing the EU in any form” during these visits.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo described Orban’s visit to Putin as “disturbing” news, writing on the social media platform X that the visit shows “disregard for the duties of the EU presidency and undermines interests of the European Union.” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also expressed his concerns on X, stating, “Mr. Orban might be abusing the position of the EU presidency, but what he is certainly not doing is representing either NATO or the EU. He does not speak for my country or any country except his own.”