However, Orban, whose NATO-member country relies heavily on Russian energy, has his own agenda, including exemptions from the U.S.’s new sanctions against Russian oil and natural gas companies, which were issued to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his war against Ukraine.

Trump heaped praise on his “friend” shortly after Orban arrived at the White House on Friday afternoon.

“He’s done a fantastic job. He’s a very powerful man within his country, but he’s also beloved. They love Viktor. The people that know him do. He’s run a really great country, and he’s got no crime, he’s got no problems, like some countries do,” Trump told reporters at the top of the meeting, previewing that it would pertain to trade, the war in Ukraine, and energy products. “He’s a very special person. I’ve known him for a long time.”

Trump also confirmed to reporters that he is “looking at” a possible waiver for Hungary to continue purchasing Russian energy, despite the pressure he placed on other European countries last summer to stop doing so.

Orban himself sought to “explain clearly what the consequences for the Hungarian people would be,” because, as a landlocked country, Hungary has limited options for its energy supply.

“We are supplied by pipelines. Pipeline is not an ideological political issue. It’s a physical reality,” the prime minister said. “We don’t have, exactly as the president explained to you, so we will negotiate on that point. It’s vital for us.”

During the meeting, Orban also appeared to undermine Ukraine’s position in the war and indicated that other European countries were perpetuating the conflict.

“The only pro-peace government is the United States government and the small Hungary in Europe,” he said. “Anyway, all the other governments prefer to continue the war, because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the front line, which is a misunderstanding of the situation, so it’s a complicated issue. We will discuss it.”

Later in the meeting, Orban amplified one of Trump’s favorite talking points, claiming that former President Joe Biden permitted the war to start and exacerbated the killing by supplying Ukraine with billions of dollars’ worth of security assistance.

“No question that if at the time, the name of the United States president could have been Donald Trump, there would be no war between Ukraine and Russia. That’s clear,” he said. “We have to restore something which was ruined and created from here. And that’s the reason why I understand absolutely that the devotion of the president, now, to do everything to stop the war, because that would not be without the previous government pressure from here. So, the reason why I’m here to be as much — as helpful I can to contribute to the peace efforts of the president, because that was an enormous mistake.”

“I think that the war is going to end in the not too distant future,” Trump added, prompting Orban to say that he had “some ideas” to pitch directly to Trump from behind closed doors.

Heritage Foundation European affairs senior research fellow Paul McCarthy agreed Orban’s “main request” would be a sanctions waiver, “for at least some period of time,” before Hungary’s elections next year, but predicted Trump would “want something in return for this favor,” including Hungarian purchases of U.S. nuclear fuel amid his tariffs against the European Union.

“My sources tell me that [foreign direct investments] are in the offing as part of a business deal,” McCarthy told the Washington Examiner. “These would be investments, but would help both sides.”

Trump and Orban would also discuss China, according to McCarthy, after the Trump administration had reiterated to Hungary that “investments or provision of weaponry, anything touching on national security interests, cannot be exposed to Chinese influence.”

“Telecoms … will certainly come up since Huawei is such a big part of the Hungarian telecom market,” he said. “There’s talk and agreements that Nokia from Finland would take over Huawei’s role in Hungarian telecoms.”

For American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Dalibor Rohac, it is not “entirely clear” why Trump holds Orban “in such high esteem” and provides him with the “platform” of a meeting at the White House.

“Hungary’s current leadership has a long track record of disregard of U.S. interests — on China, defense spending, Russian energy, and other subjects,” Rohac told the Washington Examiner. 

But McCarthy dismissed criticism of Orban’s autocratic tendencies by Trump, the president preferring instead to use his political capital for “the geopolitical discussion having to do with Hungary’s relations with Russia and China.” 

To that end, Trump welcomed Orban outside the West Wing, describing the prime minister as a “great leader.”

It is that rhetoric that is the second reason for Orban’s meeting at the White House, with the sit-down, in the words of AEI’s Rohac, an opportunity to portray himself “as someone who is respected and has access to leaders on the world stage.”

That is “despite the near-universal ostracism that he encounters in most of Europe, in the hope that the images help reverse what has been a steady decline in popular support ahead of the next year’s election,” Rohac said. “Second, Orban seeks to revive the idea of a Trump-Putin summit in Budapest — ideally leading to a bargain made over the heads of Ukrainians and Europeans — which would further elevate his own standing on the world stage and validate his pro-Russian priors.”

Trump has downplayed the prospect of another meeting between himself and Putin after a second sit-down tentatively scheduled for last month, after an initial one in Alaska in August was canceled after an unproductive call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov, in part, over disagreement over territorial concessions.

However, Trump on Friday appeared optimistic regarding a second meeting with Putin when asked by reporters, saying, “There is always a chance. A very good chance.”

“The basic dispute is they just don’t want to stop yet,” he said later. “I’d like to keep it in Hungary, in Budapest, that meeting. It turned out I didn’t want to do that meeting because I didn’t think anything was going to be happening of significance.”

A Trump-Putin summit in Budapest has been criticized by Ukraine as a repeat of the 1994 meeting in which the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, under which Ukraine surrendered its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for since-disregarded security guarantees, was signed.

Orban’s meeting with Trump coincides with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna telling Bloomberg that Ukraine is having “positive” discussions with the president’s administration about Tomahawk missiles.

TRUMP’S POST-ELECTION DIAGNOSIS RISKS NOT SEEING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES

Peter Dickinson, editor of the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert, encouraged Zelensky to keep making “his case” to Trump “for continued and ideally expanded U.S. support.” 

“It is crucial for Zelensky to outline a realistic plan for how Tomahawk missiles will change the military situation in Ukraine’s favor,” Dickinson told the Washington Examiner. “While Putin offers wild historical theories and imperial obsessions, Zelenskyy should seek to be cool and calculated in his efforts to convince Trump that the war can be won with American help.”