Hungary’s Orbán to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago next week

Former President Trump is expected to meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán next week at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, a source familiar with the plans confirmed to The Hill.

The meeting, which was first reported by The New York Times, comes as Trump is poised to cement his path to the GOP presidential nomination on Super Tuesday next week. The Times reported Orbán sought the meeting.

Trump has frequently praised Orbán during campaign rallies, and the Hungarian leader has become an influential figure in the conservative movement in the United States.

“There is a great man, a great leader in Europe — Viktor Orbán,” Trump said at a January rally. “He is the Prime Minister of Hungary. He is a very great leader, a very strong man. Some people don’t like him because he’s too strong.”

Orbán spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas in 2022, and the prime minister sat for an interview last year with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

He served as prime minister from 1998 to 2002 and then won the job back in 2010.

Watchdogs and critics have decried Orbán’s government as authoritarian and warned that it is cracking down on dissent and migration and curtailing the rights of LGBTQ people. During an address last year at CPAC Europe, Orbán admonished what he called “woke culture.”

Trump has drawn criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for speaking fondly of dictators and authoritarian rulers, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.