SourcesFilm 11
“At Your Service”
On YouTube as “Trump’s Favorite European Is Worse Than You Think”
Corrections and updates
None so far.
The lunch, rewound
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Orbán offered to help Putin, call transcript shows
“Yesterday our friendship rose to such a high level that I can help in any way”; “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service”; a Hungarian government transcript of the 17 October 2025 call, reviewed by Bloomberg
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Trump cancels the Budapest summit with Putin: “It just… it didn’t feel right to me”
Why they love him
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Orbán’s speech at the opening of CPAC Texas, Dallas
“The globalists can all go to Hell; I have come to Texas!”
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Hungary seals its border with Serbia: a 175 km fence, 4 metres high, topped with razor wire
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George Soros-funded CEU “forced out” of Budapest; Michael Ignatieff
“A United States institution has been driven out of a country that is a NATO ally”
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Close to 500 media outlets in one foundation; in December 2018 the government declared the merger of “strategic national importance”, exempting it from competition review
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Interview with Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation
“Modern Hungary is not just a model for conservative statecraft, but the model”
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Trump two days before the vote
“Hungary: get out and vote for Viktor Orbán. He is a true friend, fighter, and winner”
Who pays for the applause
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Hungarian lobbying in Washington revealed by FARA filings
Policy Impact Strategic Communications, $160,000 (HUF 56 million) in 2019
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The firm’s contract with the Embassy of Hungary
“provide outreach to the U.S. Government and media”; Tucker Carlson’s father Richard Carlson a director
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“In 2025, 92 percent of the crude oil used in Hungary came from Russia”, up from 61 percent in 2021
Putin’s man
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Orbán meets Putin in Moscow, four days after Hungary took over the EU presidency; Borrell
Orbán “is thus not representing the EU in any form”
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Orbán on Kossuth Rádió the morning after
“Nem a felét, nem a negyedet, hanem mindent” (“Not half, not a quarter, but everything”); the same day he blocked the €50 billion, ≈ $56 billion, for Ukraine
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EU leaders approve the €50 billion deal for Ukraine after Orbán lifts his veto
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Sweden submitted its letter of application to join on 18 May 2022
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Turkey’s parliament approves Sweden’s bid, which “leaves Hungary as the last holdout”
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Hungary’s government declines to meet the US senators Shaheen, Tillis and Murphy
“no members of the Hungarian government had accepted invitations to meet the delegation”
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The 2014 agreement gives a Russian state loan of up to €10.0 billion, ≈ $11.2 billion, for 80% of the project
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Szijjártó admits calling Lavrov: “before and after European Union Council meetings”
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EU delists Russian oligarchs after Hungary and Slovakia threaten to block the sanctions rollover
Four names off, Gulbahor Ismailova, Alisher Usmanov’s sister, among them
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Russian oil transit to Hungary resumed on 22 April and Hungary withdrew its veto on the €90 billion, ≈ $101 billion, loan for Ukraine
What Washington gave
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General License No. 115 on civil nuclear energy
“does not authorize… Any transactions related to the Paks II nuclear power plant project”
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Szijjártó: “last week in Washington I had negotiations about an exemption for the Paks II project”
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Treasury sanctions Rosneft and Lukoil; Scott Bessent
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire”
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Russian crude ran “an average discount of around 20%” between January 2024 and August 2025; MOL’s savings averaged €47.3 million a month, ≈ $53 million; Russia took €85.8 million a month, ≈ $96 million, in Mineral Extraction Tax; “a political choice, not a necessity”
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The sum Hungary needs for stability is “10-20 milliárd dollár vagy euró” (“10–20 billion dollars or euros”)
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Trump denies pledging a bailout for Orbán: “No, I didn’t promise him, but he certainly asked for it”
The machine, and the fall
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The prime minister’s friend becomes Hungary’s wealthiest person; in 2010 Mészáros had a single company, “mainly doing gas-fitting”
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Forbes Hungary’s rich list: Mészáros first, HUF 1,749.1 billion, ≈ $5.3 billion
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Mészáros in his 2014 Heti Válasz interview
“a Jóisten, a szerencse és Orbán Viktor személye” (“God, luck and the person of Viktor Orbán”)
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How Orbán’s hometown became a symbol of excesses
The Felcsút stadium; Sándor Léderer of K-Monitor: “The taxpayers’ money was money that didn’t go into the national budget because it’s a tax break”
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Since 2022, V-Híd, R-Kord and Kontúr paid Megafon at least HUF 4.5 billion, ≈ $13.8 million; “This amount was one-third of Megafon’s revenue during this period”
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In the 12 April election Tisza and Péter Magyar won 141 of the 199 seats
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Hungarian ad agency got millions from a firm owned by Orbán’s billionaire friend
Megafon had 72 employees in April and 3 by August 2026
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Orbán re-elected Fidesz leader despite the election loss
“Some 729 delegates out of 737 voted to re-elect Orban”
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“Lázárra is vadásznak, de rám aknavetővel lőnek” (“they hunt Lázár too, but they shoot at me with mortars”)
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Orbán loyalists move their assets abroad
“private jets loaded with assets accumulated during Orbán’s 16-year rule have been regularly departing from Vienna”, two people inside Fidesz told the Guardian and VSquare
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Readers spot Mészáros in Monte Carlo with his lawyer József Vörös; his yacht off Cannes; no charge
The turn
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It would not be logical to deny Hungary “még legalább egy évre” (“at least another year”) of the exemption from sanctions on Russian oil
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Rubio: Hungary received a one-year waiver from sanctions on Russian oil and gas
Interviews and clips quoted
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Donald Trump at the bilateral lunch with Orbán
“He’s a very powerful man within his country, but he’s also beloved”; on the summit: “I didn’t want to do that meeting”; on the oil: “They don’t have the ports”; Orbán: “it’s a physical reality”
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Donald Trump: “we’re going to be meeting in Hungary. Viktor Orban is going to be hosting”
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Viktor Orbán opening CPAC Texas: “The globalists can all go to hell. I have come to Texas”
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Tucker Carlson at MCC Feszt: “Hungary stood alone essentially in saying no thanks”
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Donald Trump at the debate with Kamala Harris: “Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men”
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JD Vance at the Budapest press conference: “they’ve done it all because they hate this guy”
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Matt Schlapp, chairman of CPAC, at CPAC Hungary 2024: “What Hungary does for America”
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Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Murphy in Budapest
“Hungary is the last country in NATO to provide that ratification”; “be refused meetings with the government”
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Vladimir Putin to Orbán in the Kremlin: “It was Donald’s proposal”
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The leaked Lavrov–Szijjártó call on Usmanov’s sister: “we will do our best in order to get her off”
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Michael Weiss, editor of The Insider
“these are not deepfakes, these are not forgeries”; “it sounds like a case officer”
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Marco Rubio after the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting
“in the case of the pipelines on oil and gas it’s a one-year extension”
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Donald Trump, The Conversation: “No, I didn’t promise him, but he certainly asked for it”
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Péter Magyar: “We will uncover the crimes. We will recover the assets”