Wounded Trump, 79, Scrambles to Downplay Stinging Defeat
The president insisted he wasn’t actively campaigning for his ally.
Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
Donald Trump awkwardly brushed off his ally Viktor Orban’s crushing defeat in Hungary, insisting he wasn’t actively campaigning for him.
Trump, 79, told ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl that he wasn’t “concerned” about Orban’s loss and said he likes incoming prime minister Peter Magyar.
Orban, a far-right figure and longtime ally of Trump, conceded defeat to center-right rival Magyar and his Tisza party on Sunday, after 16 years in power. He is a key figure in the global far-right movement and is also allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Orban, a longtime ally of Trump, lost on Sunday to his rival Peter Magyar.
Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
Trump had been posting on Truth Social before the election, urging people to vote for Orban, whom he has described as “a true friend” and his “twin” in Europe. Orban has described Trump as “the man who can save the Western world.”
As part of his efforts to campaign for Orban, Trump sent Vice President JD Vance to Hungary days before the election. Vance called the Hungarian leader a “wise and smart” man, while describing his authoritarian regime as a “model for the continent.”
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At one point during his visit, Vance even called the president from his rally in Budapest and put him on speaker phone.
Vance speaks with Trump on the phone as he delivers remarks at a rally with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Marton Monus/REUTERS
Despite their efforts, Orban’s Fidesz party lost more than half of its seats amid a record-breaking turnout of almost 80 percent.
A wounded Trump insisted on Tuesday that he thinks Magyar will “do a good job.”
“He’s a good man,” Trump told Karl.
The president added that he was unsure if it would have made a difference if he had visited Hungary instead of Vance to campaign for Orban.
Vance visited Orban in Budapest before the election.
Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
“He was behind substantially,” Trump said. “I wasn’t that involved in this one. Viktor’s a good man, though.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Analysis by British think tank Chatham House suggests that the White House’s “intervention” in Hungary “now looks more like a political own goal.”
Magyar’s Tisza party secured nearly 70 per cent of the seats in Hungary’s parliament.
Bernadett Szabo/REUTERS
“More broadly, it undercuts an idea in Trump-aligned circles that strengthening European sovereigntists would weaken the EU from within and make Europe more pliable,” according to Grégoire Roos, director of Chatham House’s Europe and Russia and Eurasia programs.
Orban’s crushing defeat could spell trouble for MAGA, Roos argued.
“Several European far-right parties have already begun distancing themselves from Trump over his more erratic foreign-policy moves and this result may further accelerate a trend towards greater autonomy from MAGA.”
Roos added: “The question now is whether Washington adjusts its methods of influence in Europe or simply doubles down.”
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