Hungary's populist prime minister has been an early Trump supporter and a loyal ally of the former US president through the years.
ADVERTISEMENTHungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban tweeted a message of support for Donald Trump on Monday, one day before the former US president is expected to surrender himself to authorities to face criminal charges linked to the payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Orban, an early Trump supporter and the first European national leader to endorse him in 2016, shared a photo of himself and Trump smiling and shaking hands during a meeting at Trump’s Bedminster estate in New Jersey last August, when Orban travelled to the US to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas.
The caption accompanying the picture encourages Trump to “keep fighting” knowing he has the Hungarian leader’s support.
“Keep on fighting, Mr President! We are with you”, reads the tweet published on Monday.
On Thursday last week, Trump became the first former US president to ever face criminal charges in the history of the country, after a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him. Though the indictment remains sealed, the 76-year-old former president is expected to face over 30 charges of business fraud linked to the payment of hush money to Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election, according to reports.
The payment was allegedly made by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen to buy Daniels’ silence over an affair she said she had with Trump a decade earlier. The payment was then reimbursed by The Trump Organization which labelled it as ‘legal fees’, according to prosecutors. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing – including denying ever having sex with Daniels – and has denounced the case as a political “witch hunt”.
He’s expected to turn himself in and cooperate with authorities to organise his appearance in court for the arraignment in New York on Tuesday.