Justin Spike, Raf Casert – Associated Press Nov 8, 2024
Orban at the Budapest Christian conference in Budapest. Click to enlarge
Donald Trump’s biggest European fan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, predicted on Friday that a new U.S. administration under Trump will cease providing support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Orbán’s comments were a signal that Trump’s recent election could drive a wedge among European Union leaders on the question of the war.
Hungary’s leader hosted the second of two days of summits on Friday in the capital, Budapest, just days after Trump’s election victory. The war in Ukraine was high on the agenda for the gathering of the EU’s 27 leaders, most of whom believe continuing to supply Kyiv with weapons and financial assistance are key elements for the continent’s security.
The nationalist Hungarian leader has long sought to undermine EU support for Ukraine, and routinely blocked, delayed or watered down the bloc’s efforts to provide weapons and funding and to sanction Moscow for its invasion. He has sought to use the summits to make his case to other leaders that they should rethink their commitments to the war-ravaged country.
In comments to state radio before Friday’s summit, Orbán, who is considered close to both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, reiterated his long-held position that an immediate cease-fire should be declared, and suggested that Ukraine has already lost its fight.
“The situation on the front is obvious, there’s been a military defeat. The Americans are going to pull out of this war,” Orbán said.
The Hungarian leader has cast himself as the exemplar of some in the EU who are skeptical of providing indefinite support to Ukraine, especially in light of uncertainty over whether U.S. assistance could evaporate under Trump.
He said Friday that Trump’s reelection had created a “new situation” for Europe, and that the continent “cannot finance this war alone.”
But numerous EU leaders made a point to downplay the risk of a shift in U.S. policies drifting across the Atlantic into European capitals. Arriving at the summit, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said a new U.S. administration wouldn’t lead Europe to change course.
“We cannot outsource our capacity of action. Whatever happens in the U.S., we have our interests, we have our values,” Borrell said.
Italy’s hard-right leader, Premier Giorgia Meloni, who is aligned with Orbán on many issues but breaks with him sharply on Russia’s war, said: “As long is there is a war, Italy is on the side of Ukraine.”
Western support is crucial for Kyiv to sustain the costly war of attrition, but Trump’s repeated statements criticizing U.S. aid, and his claims that he could bring the conflict to a rapid end, have led to uncertainty over how long the help will continue.
At a gathering on Thursday of European leaders in Budapest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy objected to Trump’s claim that Russia’s war with Ukraine could be ended in a day, something he and his European backers fear would mean peace on terms favorable to Putin and involving the surrender of territory.
“If it is going to be very fast, it will be a loss for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
Despite Orbán’s attempts to throttle aid packages, EU leaders have largely found workaround solutions to any obstruction to providing Zelenskyy with assistance, and have been able to signal their commitment to supporting Ukraine in its fight, regardless of who occupies the White House.
Closing out the summit on Friday, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said the EU would “discuss with our American friends also the fact that Russia is not only a threat to Europe, but a threat to the global security as a whole” in an effort to dissuade a new Trump administration from abandoning aid to Ukraine.
“We see that technology from China and Iran is used by Russia on the battlefield,” she continued. “It shows that the security of the Indo-Pacific and Europe are interconnected, and so are the European and the United States interests in this course.”
The Week UK
9K Followers
Racist texts tell Black people in US to prepare for slavery
Story by Peter Weber,
Israel is angry that mainly black people did not support its war on the occupied territories,
Dr David Cohen has said ” were it not for us jews blacks would still be swinging through the
trees in Africa ”
The Week The FBI said yesterday it’s looking into “offensive and racist text messages” sent to Black people in at least a dozen states since Wednesday morning. Authorities in several of the states are also investigating the anonymous messages, which told recipients — The text messages “used a similar tone but varied in wording,” The Associated Press said. A typical text told the recipient to show up “with your belongings” at a spot where “our executive slave owners will come get you in a brown van” for transport to “the nearest plantation.” Some included references to the president-elect, Donald Trump, who “stoked racism throughout his campaign,” The New York Times said. Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told The Washington Post “the campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages,” and suggesting otherwise would be an “asinine and defamatory accusation middle school students and often addressed by name — to prepare to “pick cotton” on slave plantations.
The only people with the money to build man and maintain slave ships were jewish bankers.
In other words: trump will stop forcing the american people to pay for a war that has nothing to do with them. Not a bad thing I’d say.
And before anyone says it’s an american war: I said the american PEOPLE, not they jews that control their country.
The end effect of course, will be that all the people in all the other countries will have to pay for it.
Some say Orban refused to greet Starmer at this meeting unlike others he met including Macron. Another report said Starmer arrived late and the meeting had already started. Starmer looked a little confused as he left his car and nobody was there to greet him and take him inside. He had to make his way over to an official who did greet him but he was stood back a good twenty or thirty paces. It did look like a subtle snub, not an in-your-face insult but something to make him think what have I done or said to deserve this?
Another Putintard who wears a yarmulke & meets with Chandala Lubavitch just like Trump & Jutin.
No. The Pentagon has today lifted all restrictions on US militry contractors entering Ukraine. Thats a fully fledged US intervention in all but name. The Deep State will just keep doubling down. These people are insane. The only end to this is nukes on Washington and London.
‘Another Putintard who wears a yarmulke & meets with & obeys Chandala Lubavitch just like Trump & Jutin.’