Where’s Trump? Hungary PM asks on Twitter

This file photo taken on September 16, 2016 shows Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arriving for the press conference after the European Union Summit of 27 Heads of State or Government in Bratislava, Slovakia. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on September 22, 2016, that migrants who have entered the EU illegally should be deported to camps outside the bloc such as on an island or on the north African coast. / AFP PHOTO / VLADIMIR SIMICEK

A day after launching his Twitter account Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Donald Trump, admitted Tuesday he missed the former United States president on the social media website.

“After my first day on Twitter, there’s one question on my mind. Where is my good friend, @realDonaldTrump?” Orban posted.

Trump was booted off Twitter — and handed a two-year suspension from Facebook — following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by the then president’s supporters.

He had used the popular and powerful platforms as a megaphone for his often controversial and sometimes extremist opinions as well as encouraging conspiracy theories.

The hardline anti-immigration Orban meanwhile has forged links with US right-wingers in recent years, earning praise from Trump who also endorsed the Hungarian before his re-election last April.

In August Orban was guest of honour at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas — an annual gathering of conservative activists — where his tub-thumping speech was greeted with wild applause.

Orban’s authoritarian populism pleases the CPAC crowd but goes down less well at NATO and in Europe, where his support for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin puts him at odds with leaders.

An avid user of Facebook — by far the most popular social media platform in Hungary — Orban’s first post on Twitter on Monday read: “Let’s make some noise!”.

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