Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visits President Donald Trump at the White House Nov. 7, 2025, for a meeting focused on oil and trade. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
"Every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere," Trump said in October when announcing the sanctions. "They just don’t go anywhere.
"I just felt it was time. We’ve waited a long time," Trump added when asked why he chose to impose the sanctions at that time and not sooner.
The sanctions came after a planned meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in October was called off.
Orbán, who has a longstanding warm relationship with Trump, in October called the sanctions imposed by Trump "a mistake," from Hungary's perspective.
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state-owned Sputnik agency, President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with Russian government members at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence Aug. 7, 2024. (Sergei Bobylyov/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump praised Orbán during the meeting as a "great leader," namely on his strict immigration policies.
"The fact is that he's a great leader, and he's respected all over," Trump said. "Not necessarily liked by some of the leaders, but, you know, those leaders have proven to be wrong.
"If you look at his stance on immigration and other things, you know, if you look at Europe, they made tremendous mistakes in immigration. It's really hurting them very badly. He has not made a mistake on immigration."
TRUMP: ERDOGAN COULD BE ‘INFLUENTIAL’ IN ENDING PUTIN’S WAR BY ENDING OIL SALES ‘IF HE WANTS’
Orbán also commended Trump, arguing "everything was ruined" by the Biden administration while celebrating Trump's return to the White House.
President Donald Trump, right, meets with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the Cabinet Room of the White House Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press )
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"The reason why we are here to open a new chapter between the bilateral relations of the United States and Hungary, basically, because during the Democrat administration, everything was ruined," he said.
"So, after your leaving president, everything was basically blocked, ruined, canceled. A lot of harm done by the previous administration. In the last ten months, president, what you have done, we are very much grateful for that. You restored the old level of the relationship. You improved the bilateral relation. You repaired what was done badly by the previous administration," Orbán said.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-considers-granting-hungary-exemption-russian-oil-just-weeks-after-imposing-sanctions