Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visits the White House during Donald Trump’s presidency in May 2019. (Screen capture: YouTube/Guardian News)
The Biden-Harris reelection campaign issued a statement March 11 criticizing former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, for hosting anti-LGBTQ+ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.
“To remind everyone,” the statement reads in part, “Viktor Orbán opposes democracy and LGBTQ rights, has cracked down on the judiciary and press in his country, and rigged his political system to keep himself in power.”
The campaign noted Trump was effusive in his praise for Orbán, about whom he said “there’s nobody that’s better, smarter, or a better leader,” echoing comments about the Hungarian leader that he made at a rally in January.
The statement also drew attention to reports that Trump, during their meeting, promised “that he would not give a “penny” to Ukraine in their fight against Russian thug Vladimir Putin – giving Putin the greatest gift he could hope for.”
President Joe Biden also took aim at his 2024 rival over the weekend. “You know who he’s meeting with today down at Mar-a-Lago?” Biden told supporters at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. “Orbán of Hungary, who stated flatly he doesn’t think democracy works, he’s looking for dictatorship.”
When Trump held a meeting with Orbán at the White House in May 2019, The New York Times noted that during their presidencies, George W. Bush had “dodged” and Barack Obama had “refused” to invite the far-right prime minister to the Oval Office.
Since he took office in 2010, Orbán’s policies concerning LGBTQ+ rights have been informed by his belief that they are “not compatible with Christian values.”
In 2020, he ended Hungary’s legal recognition of transgender people. The following year, his party proposed legislation to censor “pro-LGBT+ content” in movies, books, and public advertisements – which earned comparisons to Russia’s infamous law against so-called “homosexual propaganda.” And in 2023, Hungary’s parliament passed legislation that allows citizens to anonymously report same-sex couples who are raising children.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaassociation.com.
