Hungarian leader says Donald Trump will end the war in Ukraine by not giving ‘a penny’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said Donald Trump would effectively end the war in Ukraine by cutting off funding to Kyiv, should the former United States president return to power in November.
“He (Trump) has a very clear vision,” Orban said in an interview to Hungarian broadcaster M1 broadcast on Sunday.
“He says the following: first, he will not give a single penny for the Russo-Ukrainian war. That’s why the war will end, because it’s obvious that Ukraine cannot stand on its own two feet.”
Then-US. president Donald Trump welcomes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to the White House in Washington, in May, 2019. The pair have long opposed providing Wesern military aid to Ukraine. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) (AP)
Orban’s comments came after Trump hosted the Hungarian strongman at Mar-a-Lago last week.
The former US president and a small group of close advisers met with Orban at the Florida resort for roughly an hour last Friday night, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, with one of the sources describing it as a “social meeting” with no agenda. A separate source called it “friendly.”
Orban has been a longstanding opponent to European Union and NATO efforts to help Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion two years ago. Hungary has consistently bogged down Western aid negotiations, though it did recently sign off on a 50 billion euro aid package for Kyiv and approve Sweden’s accession to NATO after holding out for months.
“If the Americans don’t give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, the war will end. And if the Americans don’t give money, then the Europeans won’t be able to fund this war alone. And then the war will end,” Orban said.
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Ukrainian forces are dependent on massive supplies of militay aid, especially artillery shells.. (AP Photo/Libkos) (AP)
CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Orban, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s few allies left in Europe, frames his position as “pro-peace” despite the fact that it would effectively reward Moscow for waging war against a weaker neighbour and allow it to sue for peace on its own terms.
Trump, who last week effectively locked up the Republican nomination for president, has taken a similar isolationist approach as he campaigns to retake the White House in November.
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He has vowed to end the war in Ukraine, if he’s elected, within 24 hours – a process that could happen only on Putin’s terms and reward his illegal invasion.
Orban and Trump, both far-right populists defined by anti-immigrant and demagogic rhetoric, have long expressed mutual admiration for each other – despite the fact that critics say Orbán has weakened the country’s democratic institutions since returning to power in 2010.
Trump’s lavish praise for Orban has sparked concern that he is doubling down on his support for autocrats as Western democracies struggle to stay united in their support for Ukraine.
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Former US national security adviser John Bolton believes Donald Trump is seeking to model himself on authoritarian world leaders. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) (AP)
“He likes dealing with other big guys, and big guys like Erdogan in Turkey get to put people in jail and you don’t have to ask anybody’s permission. He kind of likes that,” John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto.
Trump’s former advisers say he consistently lavished praise on Putin, and several of them believe that in a potential second term Trump would bring a fundamental shift in America’s vision of itself and its role in the world – including potentially pulling the US out of NATO and reducing its commitment to other defense alliances.
