Viktor Orban traveled to Florida last week to meet his “good friend” Donald Trump on Friday.
Budapest:
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban claimed that former US President Donald Trump told him in a meeting that he would not “donate a cent” to the war in Ukraine – a claim that Trump’s team has not commented on.
Orban, the only EU leader to maintain ties with the Kremlin since Russia invaded Ukraine, traveled to Florida on Friday to meet with his “good friend” Trump. He has often expressed a desire for Republicans to return to power.
Speaking about a visit to public broadcaster M1 on Sunday evening, Orban said the two men had discussed the war in Ukraine when they met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday.
“He has a very clear vision, which is hard not to agree with. He said the following: First of all, he will not donate a single penny to Ukraine’s war with Russia,” Orban said.
“That’s why the war will end, because it’s clear that Ukraine cannot stand on its own feet… Europeans will not be able to finance this war on their own if the Americans don’t give money. And then the war will be over,” he added.
The Trump campaign had no comment when contacted by AFP.
However, Trump echoed his praise for Orban in an interview on Monday, calling him a “tough guy” and saying the Hungarian leader believed Russia would not invade if Trump were president.
“All these dead people are dying in bombed-out cities because Ukraine is like a demolition site right now, and what they’re doing to Ukraine is not going to happen,” Trump told CNBC.
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U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated his criticism of election rival Trump’s meeting with Orban.
“He was with Viktor Orban and Orban talked about democracy and how much he understood and agreed with him,” Biden said at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Monday. “Come on. I mean. Yes, this is not us.”
In a fiery State of the Union address last week, Biden accused Trump of “caving in” to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.
Biden’s campaign added on Monday that Orban “has manipulated his political system to keep himself in power.”
“President Biden stands up to autocrats and defends freedom,” campaign spokesman Amal Moussa said in a statement. “Donald Trump has consistently praised authoritarian leaders and dictators.”
Orban, meanwhile, angered other EU leaders when he met with Putin in September after speaking out against Western sanctions on Moscow.
The Hungarian also told M1 that Trump “has a pretty detailed plan on how to end this war,” but declined to give details.
Orban has often advocated immediate ceasefires and peace talks, arguing that Trump is best placed to find a way out of the conflict.
Trump has previously expressed his admiration for Putin and said he would end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” if elected.
Trump and his Republican allies also oppose more aid to Ukraine, and congressional Republicans are blocking Biden’s request for billions of dollars in vital military aid to Kyiv.
The first of Trump’s two impeachments during his term came over his alleged threat to withhold aid to Ukraine unless President Volodymyr Zelensky dug up Biden’s son Hunter’s political involvement in Ukraine business dealings scandal.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
