Donald Trump couldn’t run fast enough from questions about this weekend’s resounding electoral defeat of the foreign leader he was perhaps closer to than any other.
“Thank you very much,” the president hastily announced on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday night as soon as reporters started asking questions about Viktor Orban.
He then strode swiftly away from the press gaggle toward a helicopter waiting to return him to the White House after an overnight stay at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a longtime MAGA ally and Trump’s most fervent supporter in Europe, was ousted Sunday after 16 years in power in a stunning riposte to the global far right.
Orban’s Fidesz party failed to secure even a third of the vote amid a record-breaking turnout of almost 80 percent, with his opponent, Peter Magyar, telling crowds in Budapest Sunday night the country had at last “liberated” themselves from the Orban regime.
Critics had long condemned the former Hungarian leader, whom Trump described as “a true friend” and his very own “twin” in Europe, for hollowing out the central European country’s democratic institutions over the past decade and a half.
He oversaw harsh crackdowns on minority rights and media freedoms amid widespread allegations of rampant corruption, prompting the European Union, of which Hungary is a prominent member, to declare the country an “electoral autocracy.”
Orban styled himself a champion of “illiberal democracy” and a Christian-nationalist bulwark against “wokeness,” staking out hardline positions against LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and Ukraine while maintaining warm ties with Vladimir Putin even after the Russian despot’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Trump administration had sought to bolster Orban’s government ahead of the weekend’s polls, dispatching top officials to Budapest even as the president battled to maintain a delicate ceasefire in his ongoing war with Iran.
Vice President JD Vance traveled to Budapest last week to stump for Orban, declaring the Hungarian leader a “wise and smart” man while framing his repressive regime as a “model for the continent.”
On a call patched through to a Vance-led rally in the days before the vote, Trump described Orban as “a fantastic man” because he had not allowed “people to storm your country and invade your country like the people have and ruined other countries,” a pointed reference to criticisms his administration has made of European immigration policies over the past year.
The president closed out the week with a Truth Social post promising his administration “stands ready to use the full Economic Might of the United States to strengthen Hungary’s Economy, as we have done for our Great Allies in the past, if Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian People ever need it.”
He added he was “excited to invest in the future Prosperity that will be generated by Orbán’s continued Leadership.”
The president has not commented on Sunday’s result. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment, which has yet to issue any formal response to Magyar’s victory, or even acknowledge Orban’s defeat.
