Orbán was not invited to Trump's inauguration, and neither was any other member of the Hungarian government

"Let us clarify the facts: no Hungarian government official – or any foreign leader – received an "official" invitation to the inauguration of the next US President on 20 January," Zoltán Kovács, State Secretary for International Communication, wrote on Facebook. According to him, President Trump's team – in keeping with tradition – did not invite any foreign heads of state or government. Kovács added that the inauguration of the US President is "traditionally an event celebrating the peaceful transfer of power, not a gathering of foreign dignitaries".

Kovács published his post on Wednesday, after speculation had begun as to whether Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had been invited to the inauguration ceremony or not, as Trump's staff has invited several foreign leaders – according to Kovács' post, however, these are not "official" invitations.

In any case, the office of Argentine President Javier Milei confirmed last December that the politician had received an invitation. In a press conference on 9 January, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed that she had been invited to the event and planned to attend the inauguration. Several far-right politicians from across Europe have also announced their attendance, including Britain's Nigel Farage, France's Eric Zemmour, the Netherlands' Geert Wilders and Belgium's Tom Van Grieken.

Anyone attending does so on a personal or staff invitation, not in any official capacity, as this is not an occasion for formal talks or meetings but serves an entirely different purpose

– the State Secretary wrote, adding that Viktor Orbán will not attend the event.

Minister Gergely Gulyás was also questioned about this in a longer interview with atv.hu, in which he said:

"It only makes sense for the head of the government to go to Washington if they can engage in substantive talks with the new US administration. Inauguration Day is certainly not that day, it is primarily an event of US domestic politics. Viktor Orbán has been an ally of Donald Trump long enough to not need to jostle among the thousands attending the inauguration in order to demonstrate his own importance or his closeness to the new president."

In response to a question from Telex on Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Press Chief, Bertalan Havasi said that Viktor Orbán would be delivering a speech at a conference on evaluating the results of the Hungarian EU Presidency in Budapest on 20 January.