Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Donald Trump at his historic Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Friday, where they discussed issues ranging from illegal immigration to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The two discussed a variety of issues, including the importance of maintaining “strong and secure borders” and protecting the sovereignty of each nation, the Trump campaign said.
Orban noted Trump’s track record as president, saying that he was “the first president in a long time who did not start a war during his term of office.”
Returning the warm feelings, Trump said of the Hungarian leader, “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orban. He’s fantastic.”
The meeting was lauded by many conservatives as a meeting of two great conservative populist leaders.
CONSERVATIVE CHAMPIONS: Trump Meets Hungarian PM Orbán at Mar-a-Lago – Populist Leaders Plan the Post-Biden World via @gatewaypundit https://t.co/ws0rk2J4hw
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) March 9, 2024
President Biden, however, condemned the meeting and characterized it as yet another threat to democracy. Reacting to the event, he said, “You know who he’s meeting with today down in Mar-a-Lago? Orbán of Hungary, who’s stated flatly that he doesn’t think democracy works, he’s looking for dictatorship.”
Meanwhile, reaction from the local Hungarian community in Florida seemed mostly positive. Florida is home to some 100,000 people who identify as Hungarian. In general, those interviewed approved of both Orban and Trump and expressed hopes for peace and order.
Although Orban has been criticized by world leaders for being too sympathetic toward Russia and not in sync with the agenda of the rest of the Western world, he has still managed to maintain political leadership in his country as he enacts policies putting the sovereignty of Hungary first.
Famously, when gigantic caravans of illegal immigrants from the Middle East came through Europe as refugees of the Syrian Civil War, Orban sealed the Hungarian border and did not allow them passage through his nation. Meanwhile, other European countries like Germany, Austria and France are dealing with the fall-out of runaway immigration as they see spikes in crime and clashes in culture.
