Trump adviser: Orbán aims to ‘make Hungary great again’

Christian Keszthelyi

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is trying to “make Hungary great again,” U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisor Jeffrey D. Gordon said today. Gordon was speaking on a panel at the conference entitled “Enhancing Europe’s Defense: NATO’s Strategic Adaptation to the New Security Environment,” organized by the Antall József Knowledge Center (AJKC).

J.D. Gordon speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

Gordon, who served as a Pentagon spokesman from 2005–2009, gave Orbán glowing praise this morning during his opening speech for a panel entitled U.S.-EU Relations and U.S. Perceptions on NATO After the Elections.

“We very much admire and respect Prime Minister Orbán and what he is doing to make Hungary great again,” Gordon said. “He is one of the best world leaders in my opinion because he has common sense and he understands the threats from open borders and he is trying to do something about it. I believe Mr. Trump and Mr. Orbán will be good friends.”

This comes just a day after Gordon reportedly praised Orbán during an interview with Hungarian news portal mandiner.hu, on the sidelines of the two-day AJKC event. Orbán is a “brave leader who stands for common sense,” and the team of President-elect Donald Trump “deeply admires” the Hungarian leader, Gordon told the news portal.

Orbán’s name came up in the interview in connection with the Hungarian prime minister’s comments on Trump during a speech in Tusnádfürdő earlier this year, when Orbán was the first European leader to endorse Trump as a candidate for the presidency. Gordon said a friend had sent him Orbán’s comments, in which the Hungarian leader expressed his opinion that it would be best for both Europe and Hungary if Trump was elected president. “It was an especially good feeling to read those lines,” Gordon was reported as saying.

“Mr. Trump’s team deeply admires and respects Viktor Orbán,” the adviser told mandiner.hu. Asked whether Trump had invited Orbán to Washington, as reported earlier, Gordon said: “Viktor Orbán said that, so you can take it for granted.” Gordon was reported as saying that the world will wake up and realize that Trump and Orbán are right. He also added that a “new chapter will be opened in American-Hungarian relations.”

Gordon also praised Orbán for placing Hungary as the first item on his agenda all the time. In connection with this attitude, Gordon said in his interview yesterday that the president-elect’s team “want to make America great again,” as well as American-Hungarian relations, in an echo of Trump’s campaign slogan.