Donald Trump has mistakenly referred to Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán as a "great leader" of Turkey during a campaign speech.
Speaking to a crowd of his supporters in Derry, New Hampshire, on Monday, Trump was talking about how the world is "exploding" and attacking President Joe Biden's foreign policies before moving on to praise Orbán, an authoritarian leader known for his hard-line anti-immigration policies.
Rather than state that Orbán is the Hungarian prime minister, Trump described him as the leader of Turkey, who is actually Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Trump's praise of Orbán is also the latest example of the former president showing support for some of Washington's adversaries, or those who are critical of the U.S. Trump was recently criticized for describing the Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah as "very smart" after it launched a missile attack on Israel. He had previously complimented China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un.
In April, Orbán named the U.S. as one of the top three adversaries for his Fidesz Party, according to a purportedly leaked CIA report obtained by the Wall Street Journal, as tensions between the two nations escalate.
"The whole world is exploding. You know I was very honored—Victor Orbán, did anyone ever hear of him?" Trump asked his supporters in New Hampshire. "He's probably one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. Right? He's the leader of Turkey."
Trump goes on to say that Orbán has a "front" with Russia, when neither Turkey nor Hungary has a border with the country.
Trump later corrects himself and refers to Orbán as the "head of Hungary" who "runs it properly, with crime and everything else," before going back to attacking Biden.
While sharing a clip of the original gaffe, Alexander Vindman, the former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and whistleblower whose testimony led to Trump's first impeachment, posted on X, formerly Twitter: "The leader of Hungary is Viktor Orban... Turkey is Recep Erdogan.
"Both strongmen worked with the Pres Trump. Trump spoke to each a dozen times. That Trump couldn't remember who leads which country or didn't care to know is disturbing. Time for a mental acuity check."
Trump's office has been contacted for comment via email.
After recent gaffes, there have been concerns about the age of both Trump, 77, and Biden, 80, as the U.S. heads toward the 2024 election. Trump faced mockery in September after branding Biden "cognitively impaired" before saying the president could lead America into "World War II," and claiming wind turbines are causing whales to "die in numbers never seen before."
The same month, Biden was criticized after appearing to confuse the Congressional Black Caucus with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at a gala dinner, and for walking off at the end of a press conference without shaking the hand of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On September 11, he claimed to have visited Ground Zero in New York the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, despite there being no record of him being in the city that day.
Orbán and Trump have long been close allies, especially during the Republican's time in the White House. Orbán was the first European Union leader to back Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 and visited Trump in the White House in 2019.
In a video message played at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in Hungary in May, Trump praised Orbán as a "tremendous leader."
During his headline appearance at CPAC Hungary, Orbán called for Trump to return as U.S. president, with the Republican currently the strong favorite to clinch the GOP 2024 nomination.
"I'm sure if President Trump would be the president, there would be no war in Ukraine and Europe. Come back, Mr President. Make America great again and bring us peace," Orbán said.
Orbán also gave a speech at a CPAC event in Dallas, Texas, in August 2022, which arrived just after he had spoken out against "race mixing" in a speech condemned as a "purely Nazi diatribe" by his ally and adviser Zsuzsanna Hegedüs.
Update 10/24/23, 8 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional background information.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
