Orbán: Trump ‘will not give a penny to Ukraine’ if elected

Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban is revealing new details about his discussions with Donald Trump in Florida over the weekend, including that Trump, quote, will not give a penny to Ukraine if reelected this fall, a move he believes would end that war with Russia. Orban made the comments on Hungarian state television this morning. It comes just after the former president posted a highlight reel of Orban's visit to his Truth social account, which included Orban praising Trump's leadership and lamen

ting the state of the world without him in the Oval Office. Let's listen. Trump and Ecuador Becker and who covered this spot on Twitter, rely punish as Trump to carve out the Italian. As an onlooker, she got to be careful because that charlatan is about to cry. That one's emotional and the Harbottle I make meaningful. And this is not an and we're joined by an Apple boss. She's a staff writer for The Atlantic, the author of several books, including Twilight of Democracy. And you know, this This t

here's so much going on. And I guess because of the solar eclipse that occurred, because of Katie Brits performance after the State of the Union, I mean, the Orban Trump visit sort of got overshadowed a little bit. And I'm just curious if we get your reaction to Viktor Orban, this headline coming out of their meeting this morning, Orban saying that the two talked about Russia's war in Ukraine and that Trump is not going to fund it. I mean, that should be very chilling to leaders across Europe th

is morning. You know, let me start by connecting your previous segment to this one, because Orban is really the European leader who invented the idea of the fake campaign against migrants and the idea that the migrants are invading. And they're you know, and there's a secret plot that that migrants will replace, you know, ethnic Hungarians. That's right. And he was the one who converted that. And some of what you're hearing, the GOP do and Trump himself do is actually an imitation of that. You k

now, this kind of in the case of Hungary, it's a completely fake story. There is no there was no border crisis in Hungary, no real one. We do have one. But it's but it's, of course, very nuanced and complicated. But using this military language, turning it into an invasion, this is what Orban did to hide his real agenda. So he talked about migrants. You know, he talked about Hungary's enemies. And then behind the scenes, what he's actually done as prime minister is do deals with Russia, do deals

with China, you know, corrupt Hungary, reduce the Hungarian business elite to just a few people who are his friends. And I think that is actually the model that he is presenting that so appealing to the GOP. And it's also you know, it's also the explanation for the connection between Hungary, Trump and Russia. So so the agenda is, you know, private deals with Russia. And we, you know, but we don't talk about it in public. And I think Trump is you know, Trump actually talks very rarely about Ukr

aine in public, very and very rarely about Russia. But we know from his actions that he has been responsible for blocking, for persuading the House to block aid. Ukraine in order for Ukraine to lose so that Russia wins. But and and there's also I mean, the arguably maybe you'll disagree with me, the larger issue of of all the world leaders that Donald Trump is bringing to Mar a Lago, you know, during this general election campaign, which is basically started, he brings Viktor Orban, this autocra

t in Europe that I suppose might form some kind of alliance with Donald Trump. Maybe it's kind of a post NATO's world that they envision a more autocratic world that they envision. I mean, this this should alarm a lot of Americans. And the fact that they're talking foreign policy, talking about very significantly altering the foreign policy of the United States when it comes to Ukraine. I mean, that that should raise alarm bells Look, a German member of parliament said to me a few weeks ago in M

unich, we in Europe realize now that in a matter of months or years, we could be dealing with facing three autocracies, you know, Russia, China and the United States. And so, yes, there is a very real fear that Trump will align with Russia against Europe, that Russia will cease to, you know, not not not just cease to to send military aid to Ukraine, but will also encourage further Russian incursions into Europe. So, absolutely, it's it's an enormous fear. And, of course, that would change the ba

lance of power in the world. And it would have an enormous effect on perceptions of the U.S. in the world, on trade with the US, on whether Europeans buy American products, all kinds of things that most people don't factor in. You know, America being the security guarantor for Europe bestows a lot of advantages on the United States. Including economic advantages. And one, once we lose that, it's going to be very hard to win back. That's right. I mean, our European allies, they're going to be tem

pted to form other alliances if they see Donald Trump on the verge of coming back to the White House. I mean, that's that you hear that from diplomatic officials here in Washington all the time. And and another parallel between Viktor Orban and Donald Trump we should talk about this morning on CNBC. Trump called Facebook and the news media here in the United States the enemy of the people. And he was talking about it in reference to a tick tock question. But let's watch this I consider Facebook

to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media. I think Facebook has been very dis I think Facebook has been very bad for our country. Especially when it comes to elections. Now, he seems to be coming to TikTok's rescue a little bit with all of this talk of Washington are cracking down on tick target. We should note, I mean, one place where you see a lot of MAGA propaganda is on TikTok these days. So perhaps that has something to do with it. But we should also note a number of press

or organization, press freedom organizations have blasted Viktor Orban's crackdown on the media. Of course, we saw that during the Trump administration here in the U.S. It sounds like another parallel that what's important about Orban's crackdown on the media and why it's why it's an example for four for the for that minority of the Republican Party. Hoo hoo who want a more authoritarian system is that it wasn't done was censorship. So Orban didn't censor people. Instead, he used tactics. You k

now, he used business pressure on advertisers who advertised in independent media. He would say, do you really want to place that advertisement because you might lose your government contract if you do. He used you know, he cut he cut funding for all kinds of advertising that the government used to do. You know, in other words, he put business pressure on media in order to put it out of business. And eventually, over a period of time, he succeeded. And that's something that's never been tried in

the United States, certainly not with the federal government seeking to put media out of business on purpose. But it's something we could see. I mean, it's something that others have tried to imitate. Orban did it the previous Polish government that lost the election in October tried to do it. Others others have seen this as a kind of example. Absolutely. There's no question about it. I mean, if you look at press freedom organizations, they have basically called Viktor Orban a press freedom pre

dator in his country. So that's obviously something that should worry a lot of people are. And Applebaum, thanks as always. We appreciate it. Our panel is back with us, including Sir Michael Singleton, who wrote his Ducati as quickly as possible to arrive with us. Welcome to my. Thank you. So let's start with this Auburn situation. High praise for this strongman hosting him at the club you can you sort of I mean, how do you view this as a Republican? I mean, like I mean, you know, it's not only

the former president, but even the Heritage Foundation. They've also hosted him and Heritage Foundation, clearly, and a conservative once upon a time, academic intelligentsia in the same vein as AEI and the Hoover Institute. Are they sort of moved more towards a populist nationalist sentiment? I mean, I think what you find when you talk to many MAGA supporters are that they do view the way Victor has sort of led his country as something that we need in the United States, sort to correct some of

our errors whether that's culturally whether that's politically. I as a conservative, obviously do not agree with that because I think there are far more better ways to disagree with individuals on the other side than having a strong man in power. And so I would caution the former president, because you do run the risk, which he's already having trouble with, those moderate Republicans, maybe even some conservative leaning Democrats, who may say, I like certain economic policies that conservativ

es may traditionally support. You would have a difficult time reaching out to some of those individuals.