Trump claims 'very tough guy' Orbán wants him back in office

The Republican National Convention came to an end on Thursday with former President Donald Trump’s acceptance of the party’s presidential nomination.

During his closing speech — which lasted over an hour and a half — Trump touched on various topics with a domestic focus but also spoke about his ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

On stage, Trump praised Orbán, calling him a champion of “illiberal democracy” in his own country.

“Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, very tough guy,” Trump said. 

He said Orbán, a repeat visitor to Trump’s Florida compound Mar-a-Lago — including one last week shortly after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin — was asked why the world seemed to be in chaos.

Trump quoted Orbán as saying, “There’s only one way you can solve it. You’ve got to bring President Trump back.”

“Russia was afraid of him. China was afraid of him,” Trump quoted the Hungarian prime minister as saying. “The whole world was at peace.”

Orbán, who has endorsed Trump, is Russia’s closest ally in the European Union and is also maintaining close ties to Beijing. 

His administration has also fought against immigration and LGBTQ+ rights, and his party has rewritten the nation’s constitution to give it control of the media and judiciary.