During an interview with Tucker Carlson, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary said that President Donald Trump’s leadership is the key to ending the conflict in Ukraine.
Orbán had a positive relationship with Trump during the current Republican frontrunner’s time in the White House.
“The Russians are far stronger, far more numerous than the Ukrainians,” said the prime minister during the interview for Carlson’s series on X. “Call back Trump. That’s the only way out. Call back Trump.”
“Trump is the man who can save the Western world,” said Orbán. “You know, you can criticize him for many reasons. I understand all the discussion. But the best foreign policy of the recent several decades belonged to him.”
Orbán praised Trump’s diplomatic relationships with Russia, North Korea, and China.
“Facts count and his foreign policy was the best form for the world in the last several decades I have seen,” said the prime minister. “And if he would have been the president at the moment the Russian invasion started, no, it would not be possible to do that by the Russians.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022 following months of increasing tension.
In the following months, the US Congress approved over $113 billion in aid for Ukraine.
Orbán has consistently expressed his belief in Trump’s geopolitical influence and suggested he could alter the outcome of the conflict. In October of 2022, the Hungarian prime minister said President Joe Biden had gone “too far” when he said Russian President Vladimir Putin should not remain in power.
“Hope for peace is named Donald Trump,” Orbán said at an event in Germany hosted by Circero magazine, per The Washington Post.
Trump endorsed Orbán ahead of the Hungarian elections in 2022. Trump said Orbán has done a “wonderful job in protecting Hungary, stopping illegal immigration.”
“Viktor Orbán of Hungary truly loves his Country and wants safety for his people,” Trump said in a statement, per Forbes.
Carlson, who was fired from Fox News on April 24, has been accused of being “obsessed” with Hungary.
In 2021, Carlson hosted “Tucker Carlson Tonight” from Budapest for a week before speaking at a political conference. He has also praised Orbán “for his policies rewarding Hungarian families for having more children to address a declining birth rate in the country,” per Business Insider.
"Hungary's leaders actually care about making sure their own people thrive," Tucker said on a 2019 episode of his Fox show. "Instead of promising the nation's wealth to every illegal immigrant from the third world, they're using tax dollars to uplift their own people."
