TRUMP INVITES HUNGARY’S CONTROVERSIAL PRIME MINISTER ORBAN TO WHITE HOUSE~NEW POST-GLOBALIST ORDER DISCUSSED
Trump is one of the Hungarian PM’s few allies, who has become one of Europe’s most prominent right-wing nationalists. Orban and his Fidesz party were elected in 2018 on a campaign that almost exclusively focused on anti-immigration policies.
Senior Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Congress told President Donald Trump on Friday they were concerned about Hungary’s “downward democratic trajectory,” ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visit to Washington.
“In recent years, democracy in Hungary has significantly eroded. … Under Orban, the election process has become less competitive and the judiciary is increasingly controlled by the state,” Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch and Bob Menendez, the panel’s top Democrat, said in a letter to Trump.
The letter was also signed by Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
The senators also said they were very concerned about the close relationship between Hungary, a NATO partner, and Russia. They said Hungary has failed to diversify its energy resources from Moscow and allowed Russia to exploit its visa system to evade U.S. sanctions.