Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban ripped the Biden administration while praising President Trump’s policies as the two met at the White House.
Mr. Orban was in Washington to make the case for exemptions from U.S. sanctions on buying Russian oil.
“The reason why we are here [is] to open a new chapter between the bilateral relation between the United States and Hungary basically because during the Democrat administration everything was rigged,” Mr. Orban said Friday while sitting next to Mr. Trump.
“Everything was basically broke, ruined, canceled,” he said. “A lot of harm [was] done by the previous administration.”
Mr. Orban said he was grateful for the work Mr. Trump has done in the first 10 months of his second administration.
“You restored the old level of the relationship, you improved the bilateral relation. You repaired what was done badly by the previous administration, so now we are in quite a good position to open up a new chapter. Let’s say a golden age between the United States and Hungary,” Mr. Orban said.
The two leaders have been close since Mr. Trump’s first term. They have spoken several times by phone and at international events.
Mr. Biden’s team criticized Hungary, citing corruption, democratic backsliding, its relationship with Russia and its blocking of NATO and European Union initiatives.
Mr. Trump has praised Mr. Orban for his hard-line immigration policies, a topic they discussed while the media attended their lunch meeting. Mr. Orban said Hungary faces fines every day [by the European Union’s top court] for not letting migrants into the country.
