Trump: I look forward to working with Viktor Orbán again when I am President

As in previous years, the second day of the CPAC Hungary conference began with a video message from Donald Trump. In the video, which was shorter than last year's, lasting only one and a half minutes, the former president of the United States spoke about the "epic struggle to liberate our nations from the sinister forces that want to destroy them, take away our culture, our sovereignty and our way of life".

Trump also said he was proud to have worked with Viktor Orbán as president, whom he considers a great man. The former president said that both he and the Hungarian Prime Minister had successfully tackled illegal immigration, created jobs and defended their nations' traditions.

"I look forward to working closely with Prime Minister Orbán again when I take the oath of office as the 47th President of the United States," the Republican Party’s presidential candidate optimistically declared.

Trump concluded his speech by saying:

“As long as we remain true to our principles and fearless in defending our values, we conservatives will win the battle to save our civilization from communists, Marxists and fascists.”

The Centre for Fundamental Rights, which organizes CPAC Hungary, had extended a personal invitation to Donald Trump last year, but he did not come to Budapest. The former president only sent a video message to the conference both last year and the year before.

This year, at least, there is a good reason why he couldn't make it to Budapest in person: the former president is currently spending his days in a New York courtroom, where a case against him began last week after he tried to conceal the fact that he paid hush money to a porn star during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Last year, Trump spoke of the historic battle against globalists and communists, and the year before that he said that Viktor Orbán was "a great leader and a true gentleman" and that the most serious problem facing the world today was socialism and communism.

In his opening speech on the first day of this year's conference, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán insisted that Hungary is a country governed by the rule of law, because – as he said – even if he wanted to, he could not tell a Hungarian court what the right thing to do is. In fact, even if he did, they would decide the opposite.

Other than the Prime Minister, Máté Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, and Márton Nagy, Minister for National Economy, also spoke on the first day of the conference. The former spoke on the fight between sovereignists and globalists, the latter shared his opinion on protective tariffs against China.

On the second day, Trump's video message was followed by speeches by Minister at the Prime Minister's Office Gergely Gulyás, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Morawiecki compared the European Union to a declining Rome and spoke about the importance of defense and welfare spending. Santorum spoke of "woke lattes", left-wing schools and universities re-educating the children of conservatives, the importance of religion and conservative values, and called on conservatives to "do something the left never will: have children".

What is CPAC Hungary?

For the third time this year, the Hungarian edition (CPAC Hungary) of the annual CPAC super-conference, organized by the (far) right wing of the American Republican Party, is being held in Budapest between 25 and 26 April. Each time so far, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been the keynote speaker. As in previous years, the right-wing conference is organized by the Centre for Fundamental Rights, which is generously funded by public money.

Starting in the 1970s, CPAC was originally the annual rally of the American right, with the first European forum, CPAC Hungary, organized by the Centre for Fundamental Rights in 2022. According to the announcement of the programme, "some of the world's most prominent right-wing leaders, scholars and influencers attend" CPAC Hungary. This, however, isn't the case, as the Center for Fundamental Rights has not succeeded in bringing a single leading American or Western European politician to Budapest either this year or in previous years. Last year, both Donald Trump and the other "big name", broadcaster Tucker Carlson, greeted the participants only by pre-recorded video messages.