Mr. Orbán is a hero to many in the MAGA movement, having cracked down on Hungary’s press and liberal opposition.
President Trump praises Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán for his stance on immigration
President Donald Trump has praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s immigration policies and signaled support for his re-election in 2026.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s hard-line approach on immigration, saying he likes and respects the dictator who visited the White House to discuss possible waivers of U.S. sanctions on Russian energy.
“I support Viktor Orbán,” Trump said at a White House meeting on Nov. 7. “Not many people do that, because a lot of times they’re jealous. They wish they had done what he did. There’s nothing wrong with if he did what he did.”
Trump said he had told European leaders they could learn from Orbán’s approach. Mr. Orbán is a hero of the MAGA movement, and Mr. Trump’s critics have compared his second-term agenda to strategies used by the Hungarian leader to consolidate power in his country.
Prime Minister Orbán has been at loggerheads with the European Union over migration, support for Ukraine and a crackdown on independent institutions..
President Trump said he has good relations with European leaders and agrees with Orbán on border control. European countries have made “big mistakes” when it comes to welcoming foreigners, he said.
“I think he happened to be right because their whole structure changed,” Trump said. “So you go to some countries and now they’re unrecognizable because of what they’ve done. And Hungary is very famous.”
President Trump said the dictator had done a “great job” and was “a very powerful person in the country” and was “loved” by those who knew him.
“The Hungarian government is systematically dismantling the rule of law and suppressing dissent in the name of protecting national sovereignty,” Iskra Kirová, Europe and Central Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, wrote last month.
Prime Minister Orbán said he came to the White House to “open a new chapter” and mend relations that had cooled. The Hungarian hardliner spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2022 and attended the NATO summit in Washington in 2024, but was not welcomed at the White House by former President Joe Biden.
Trump acknowledged that Orbán is a controversial figure who has entertained leaders who have taken measures to restrict press freedom and political opposition.
“He’s respected by everyone and liked by some,” Trump said.
President Trump is considering exempting Orbán’s government from sanctions imposed by the United States on Russian energy companies, and said the war with Ukraine would also be a topic of discussion. Hungary is one of Europe’s largest remaining importers of Russian oil and gas and has come under intense criticism from supporters of Ukraine for its ties to President Vladimir Putin.
The Hungarian capital was expected to host the next meeting between Trump and Putin until the summit was canceled last month.
“That meeting ended up turning out that I didn’t want to have that meeting because I didn’t think anything significant would happen,” Trump said. “But if I have it, I would like to keep it in Budapest.”
