The U.S. ambassador in Budapest, David Pressman, has publicly criticized Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó for a tweet by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán showing solidarity with former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The spat is the latest installment in the increasingly uneasy relationship between Hungary and the U.S. delegation in Budapest.
“Keep on fighting, Mr. President! We are with you!” Orbán wrote ahead of Trump’s historic court appearance in New York on Tuesday. The tweet sparked a reaction from Pressman, appointed to his role by the Biden administration.
The U.S. diplomat quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó’s recent remarks in which he stated the Hungarian government respects the integrity of other democracies and does not interfere in the internal politics of other countries.
Pressman and Szijjártó have been at loggerheads for months, with the ambassador repeatedly saying that Hungary continues to express Putin’s pro-Putin views.
“We are not hosting governors and deputies who I assume are sent here to tell us how to live in our own countries,” Szijjártó replied, claiming “that era is over.”
The previous U.S. ambassador to Budapest, David Cornstein, had an excellent relationship with Hungary’s conservative government and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán personally, but Biden appointee Pressman has on several occasions criticized the Hungarian government for what he considers an anti-democratic stance.
