Trump will meet Orban, the leader of Hungary, next week

Former President Donald J. Trump will meet privately with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, at Trump’s Florida club next week, according to a person briefed on the plans.

Mr. Orbán is a right-wing nationalist who has waged an aggressive campaign against immigration and has declared that the West is “at war with itself.” He has been a longtime ally of Mr Trump and has close ties to the populist conservative movement in the United States.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly praised Mr. Orban at rallies and in speeches since leaving the White House. Their meeting, which will take place next Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, underlines the extent to which Trump has tried to portray himself as a kind of president in exile.

It comes as Trump closes in on the Republican presidential nomination and prepares for the general election campaign against President Biden, who has had a chilly relationship with the Hungarian prime minister.

The White House National Security Council said it was not aware of plans for Mr Orban to visit Mr Biden during his trip.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Mr. Orban has feuded with the leaders of other NATO and European Union countries over the war in Ukraine and has been attacked by critics for steering Hungary toward authoritarianism. Like Mr. Trump, he has at times expressed sympathy for or admiration for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Hungary has hosted meetings of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, which has become an extension of Trump’s MAGA movement, and Mr. Orban appeared at the group’s meeting in Texas two years ago.

Mr. Orban sought out the upcoming meeting, according to the person briefed on the plans. The two men first developed a relationship when Mr. Trump was president, and Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Orban for a fourth term in 2022.

In a speech earlier this month, Mr Orban effectively backed Mr Trump, calling the election in the United States part of a global referendum on what kind of government democracies should choose.

“The year 2024 could be a turning point: a ‘super election year’ in which people in Brussels, America, India and a dozen other places will decide what leadership they want in the tide of global economic transformation and the crashing ice floes.” he said.

He added: “We cannot interfere in other countries’ elections, but we would very much like to see President Donald Trump return to the White House and make peace here in the eastern half of Europe. It is time for a new ‘Make America Great Again’ presidency in the United States.”

Their last meeting was in 2022 at Mr. Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., after which Mr. Trump posted on his social media website: “Great spending time with my friend, Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary. We discussed many interesting topics; few people know so much about what is happening in the world today. We also celebrated his big election victory in April.”

That meeting followed a speech Mr. Orban made mocking “mixed-race” countries, a speech that was widely condemned as echoing Nazi rhetoric.

“We are not mixed race,” Mr Orban said in the speech, adding: “and we do not want to become mixed race.”

Mr. Trump, who has been widely criticized for undermining democracy and is under federal indictment over allegations that he illegally tried to undermine the peaceful transfer of power to Mr. Biden, has embraced a similar anti-immigrant message. He began saying in speeches in recent months that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country,” doubling down on the line when he was criticized for language with echoes of white supremacy and Hitler.

Mr Trump often describes Mr Orban – who has been criticized for Hungary’s democratic backsliding under his rule and who has made statements against Ukraine since the Russian invasion – as a “great leader”.

“There is a great man, a great leader in Europe – Viktor Orban,” Trump said in a speech last month. “He is the Prime Minister of Hungary. He is a very great leader, a very strong man. Some people don’t like him because he’s too strong.’

Pieter Bakker reporting contributed.