Trump touts European ‘strongman’ as close ally during presidential debate: Who is Viktor Orban?

Former President Trump touted his foreign policy credentials during Tuesday night’s presidential debate, name-checking the strong relationships he built with leaders of rival nations and allies alike during his term, most notably Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the “strongman” of Europe.

“He’s a tough person, smart prime minister of Hungary,” Trump said, adding that Orban insisted “you need Trump back as president” because “they were afraid of him.” 

“China was afraid, and I don’t like to use the word afraid, but I’m just quoting him,” Trump said. “China was afraid of him. He said Russia was afraid of him.”

“Look, Viktor Orban said it: He said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president,” Trump added.

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Trump also responded to Vice President Harris’ claim that he “admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one” and he “exchanged love letters with Kim Jong Un” by noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin had endorsed her last week and said he hoped she wins “because what he’s gotten away with is absolutely incredible.”

Trump said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would never have happened during his time in office, noting that he knew Putin “very well.”

Trump then blasted Biden for how he hurt the XL pipeline and handed Russia a win with “the biggest pipeline in the world” running into Germany and Europe as a whole.

Trump has repeatedly compared his foreign policy record to that of the Biden administration, roping in Harris as part of that policy, and noted the more interventionist approach he took, using force as deterrence against Iran and meeting with Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to ensure stability in regions faced with uncertainty.

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Trump and Orban enjoyed a rosy relationship during the Trump administration, often pictured together smiling and shaking hands in sharp contrast to the more demure meetings between Orban and Biden.

Orban made headlines over the summer when he prematurely ditched a high-level NATO summit in Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump in Florida at a time when Biden faced questions about his fitness for office and in seeking a second term. Orban was seeking a cease-fire in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, having met separately with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We continued the peace mission in Mar-a-Lago,” Orban wrote on his official social media account on X after the meeting. “President @realDonaldTrump has proved during his presidency that he is a man of peace. He will do it again!”

“It was an honour to visit President @realDonaldTrump at Mar-a-Lago today,” he wrote in a separate post that labeled the visit “Peace mission 5.0.” “We discussed ways to make peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it!”

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Orban, who assumed the role of president of the European Union as part of a six-month rotational leadership scheme, joked at the time that Hungary would “make Europe great again” and warned that “the next American president will not be the same president who is today.”

He told other leaders at the formal NATO dinner that allies who still thought Biden could win the upcoming presidential election “were like people on the Titanic playing violins as the ship went down,” the Financial Times reported.

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During a visit to the U.S. in March, Orban visited with Trump, not Biden, when trying to court potential foreign policy in the U.S. He also spoke at a panel with the leader of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.