Rubio to visit Hungary and Slovakia after Trump backs Orbán, amid EU tensions
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Hungary and Slovakia next week after President Donald Trump publicly endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ahead of April elections, the State Department said, setting up a high-profile diplomatic swing as transatlantic tensions flare.
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Rubio will represent the United States at the Munich Security Conference before heading to Budapest and Bratislava. He is stepping in for Vice President JD Vance, who last year used the elite Munich forum to berate the European Union and champion the continent’s far right.
The trip comes days after Trump threw his weight behind Orbán, calling the EU’s longest-serving national leader “a true friend, fighter, and WINNER” on social media. Orbán is seeking a fifth straight term on April 12 but faces a rare and mounting challenge from Peter Magyar, a former government insider turned critic, with polls showing the prime minister trailing Magyar’s party.
Orbán remains an outlier among EU heads of government for maintaining warm ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and for repeatedly resisting EU efforts to deepen support for Ukraine. He had sought to broker a summit last year between Trump and Putin, a plan shelved as U.S. officials concluded Moscow was unlikely to compromise on the war.
The U.S. outreach lands as strains with Brussels resurface following Trump’s recent musing about seizing Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally, further rattling European partners already uneasy over Washington’s shifting posture toward the alliance and Russia.
In Slovakia, where Prime Minister Robert Fico has also found common cause with Trump, Rubio’s agenda is set to emphasize security and energy. “During his visit in Slovakia, Mr Rubio will meet with key members of the Slovak government to advance shared regional security interests, strengthen bilateral cooperation on nuclear energy and energy diversification, and support Slovakia’s military modernisation and NATO commitments,” a State Department spokesperson said.
Fico’s recent visit to see Trump in Florida drew scrutiny after Politico, citing unnamed European diplomats, reported that Fico raised concerns about the U.S. president’s mental state. Both Bratislava and Washington denied the account.
Orbán’s decade-long positioning as a lodestar for the American right began during the Syrian refugee crisis, when he enacted hard-line border policies and framed migration as a civilizational threat. During a White House visit last year, Trump granted Hungary a sanctions exemption on Russian oil and gas imports, underscoring Budapest’s distinct path inside the EU on energy and Russia.
Relations between Orbán and the previous U.S. administration under former President Joe Biden were openly antagonistic. Biden accused Orbán of “looking for dictatorship,” citing the government’s crackdowns on independent media and frequent campaigns against LGBTQ rights.
Rubio, often perceived as the more diplomatic face of the Trump administration, is a familiar presence among European policymakers and is expected to use his Munich appearances and bilateral stops to reassure allies of continued U.S. engagement while echoing the White House’s skepticism of certain EU policies.
The overlapping political theater—Trump’s vocal endorsement, Orbán’s high-stakes election fight, and Rubio’s European tour—will test Washington’s ability to manage security priorities in Central Europe while navigating fractious debates inside the EU over Russia, energy, and democratic norms.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
