Trump boosts Hungary's far-right Orbán with Russian energy sanctions carveout

President Donald Trump gave his authoritarian Hungarian ally Viktor Orbán a special exemption from Russian energy sanctions Friday.

President Donald Trump has handed his authoritarian Hungarian ally Viktor Orbán a special exemption from Russian energy sanctions, a major boost for the far-right populist whose 15-year rule has been used as a blueprint by the MAGA movement.

Orbán visited Trump in Washington on Friday, with one of his explicit goals being to win a carveout from the latest sanctions imposed against Russian oil and gas companies last month.

Hungary is a major importer of Russian energy, and the sanctions were set to squeeze its already ailing economy ahead of elections next year that present the biggest challenge to what the European Union calls Orbán’s “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy.”

In a post on X, Orbán said he had received a guarantee of “full sanction exemptions” for key pipelines, allowing Hungary to continue providing “the lowest energy prices in Europe.”

He said Hungary was in a “significantly different situation” from other European countries, suggesting it would be “impossible” to secure affordable energy if sanctions remained in place.