Diplomatic tension between Washington and Budapest. Hungary summoned the US ambassador to Budapest to protest a statement by US President Joe Biden that the prime minister Viktor Orbán seeks dictatorship, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Peter Szijjártó announced today, Wednesday, at a press conference.

Orban has openly supported former US President Donald Trump’s bid for a total rollback in the White House and his administration has often clashed with the current Biden administration, including Hungary’s close ties to Russia.

Nationalist Orban, a staunch supporter of Trump’s return to the White House, met with him in Florida last Friday. Hungary’s prime minister reiterated his admiration for the former US president, calling him a Republican tycoon “president of peace” and the only presidential candidate who can end the war in Ukraine.

In a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania after the meeting between Orban and Trump, Joe Biden mocked the fact that Trump met the head of a government in Europe “who has categorically stated that does not believe that democracy works and seeks to impose a dictatorship”according to American media.

Hungary’s foreign minister called Biden’s statement false and “very serious offense”. “This way of thinking of the president and the democratic government is putting a lot of strain on our bilateral relations,” Cigarto said in response to a question at a press conference.