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Viktor Orban, an ally of Trump and friendly to Putin, is in Washington to discuss the possibility of moving away from Russian oil and gas
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Donald Trump met with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban in Washington on Friday as the US president seeks to persuade European nations to stop buying Russian oil and gas.
Orban received a warm welcome at the White House, where he said one of the issues up for discussion will be to explain the consequences of moving away from Russian energy.
The two spoke about the war in Ukraine, which the US administration is seeking to end by putting pressure on Putin through sanctions on its energy industry.
Orban said Trump was the only country serious about ending the war, other than Hungary, and said: “Other governments prefer to continue the war because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the frontline, which is a misunderstanding of the situation.”
Trump asked Orban to clarify whether he believes Ukraine “cannot win that war”.
“You know, miracles can happen,” Orban replied, to which Trump laughed: “Yeah, that’s right.”
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie’s trip to Ukrainedescended into drama on Wednesday when her local driver was press-ganged into the military.
Jolie, a Unicef ambassador, was visiting the south of the country to meet with children impacted by the war, local media reported.
The celebrity was seen playing with a group of children in Kherson, a region attacked by Russian forces with drones and missiles on an almost daily basis.
Arpan Rai reports:
Donald Trump’s press conference with Viktor Orban has ended nearly an hour after the prime minister’s arrival at the White House.
Trump spent the last segment of the conference talking about the US government shutdown.
Trump says that were a summit with Putin to go ahead, he would like for it to still be in Hungary’s Budapest.
Answering a question on why the Budapest summit with Putin broke down, Trump says: “The basic dispute is they just don’t want to stop yet. I think they will. It’s taken a big toll on Russia.
“They’re losing 7,000 soldiers a week. That’s a big toll. Between the two of them. Divided with Russia losing more soldiers actually.”
“I think pretty much every single leader of Europe is a friend of mine … they’ve done everything I’ve asked them to do with NATO, et cetera,” Trump continues.
“The only thing they continue to do is buy oil from Russia. That’s not too good.”
Trump insists that he does not want to criticise individual countries in Europe, while praising Hungary’s immigration policy.
“They’re all friends of mine,” he says, referencing the decision to raise NATO spend, offsetting the burden on the US.
“Nobody thought that was possible. And we had – almost, other than Spain – a unanimous vote.”
“Other governments prefer to continue the war because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the frontline, which is a misunderstanding of the situation,” Orban says.
Trump chimes in: “So you would say that Ukraine cannot win that war?”
“You know, miracle can happen,” Orban replies.
Trump laughs. “Yeah, that’s right.”
Trump dodges a question on whether or not he could meet with Putin in Budapest, after plans for a summit fell apart last month.
“We’re talking, but we’ll report on that later,” Trump says.
Hungary is “being led properly” under Orban, “and that’s why he’s going to be very successful in his upcoming election”, Trump says in defence of Orban, taking a question from a Hungarian reporter.
Orban is losing ground to an opposition newcomer in the lead-up to the 2026 election.
Trump also says that while other countries in Europe have “made tremendous mistakes” on immigration, Orban has not.
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