Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is making a multi-day visit to the United States, where on March 8th, he will meet with former US President and now sole Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Trump - in line with Hungary's stance - advocates for peace and calls for an immediate end to the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict to prevent further casualties of war. Given that one of the main political fault lines in the upcoming November US presidential election will foreseeably be the continuation of the war versus the promotion of peace between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Századvég has mapped out what Hungarians think about the current and former US presidents in this regard.
As an introduction, it is important to establish that the United States – as the world's leading economic, military, and political power – plays a key role in shaping global political processes and preserving their stability, placing an unparalleled public responsibility on its president. Donald Trump was the first US president since Jimmy Carter, who stepped down in 1981, whose term of office did not initiate a new war. In this light, it is less surprising that the majority of respondents (53 percent) feel the world was more peaceful and safe during Donald Trump's presidency than it is currently under Joe Biden.
In the two years since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, it has become clear that the Biden administration's foreign policy has led to the escalation of the armed conflict rather than the promotion of peace. Joe Biden's commitment to war is shown by the fact that although Republican members of the US Congress have been obstructing further military aid to Ukraine for months, Biden continues to arm Ukraine through legal loopholes. For these reasons, the domestic public opinion sees Donald Trump as the guarantor of a quicker resolution to the war conflict. The research concludes that
Hungarians – as the President of the USA – would clearly consider Donald Trump (51 percent) a better NATO ally for ending the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine than Joe Biden (30 percent).
Due to its NATO membership, geographical location, and historical experience, Hungary's primary interest is to prevent the escalation of the war and to avoid war involvement. According to the survey, the majority of respondents (51 percent) would judge Trump – as the US President – to be a better NATO ally for the preservation of our nation's peace and security, compared to the current US leader, Joe Biden.
