Trump won’t wait until inauguration to bring ‘peace’ to Ukraine, Orbán says

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claims that if Donald Trump is re-elected as U.S. president, he won’t even wait until his inauguration to take action on the war in Ukraine.

At a press conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday — where he addressed Europe’s migration debate and accused centrist parties of “failing” to meet the needs of the continent’s voters — Orbán also touched on the upcoming U.S. election and his friend Trump. 

“I am happy that the informal summit of European leaders will take place in Budapest on Nov. 7, two days after the election,” the populist leader said.

“I think this is the most appropriate occasion to discuss what we should think individually and as a community [about] the outcome [of Russia’s war on Ukraine] and how to evaluate what should be done afterward.”

The prime minister said there was a “significant difference” between the foreign policy approach of Trump and the current Democratic administration. “You can choose according to your taste of national interest which one you are in favor of,” Orbán said, making no secret of his own preference: “We will open several bottles of champagne if Trump is back.”

Orbán added that if Trump wins, “he will not wait until the inauguration ceremony … in order to manage a peace” in Ukraine.

Trump “will act immediately, so we as European leaders don’t have any time to waste, because there would not be two or three months, as we usually have, between the election and the inauguration of the new president. We have to react first intellectually, philosophically, then strategically, and then at the level of action as soon as possible,” Orbán said.