In a robust address to the UN General Assembly, Trump denounced Tuesday a “globalist” view of the world and signaled his commitment to following an “America First” foreign policy.

“In the last few decades the US took on some kind of role of making the world better than in fact was contrary to American interests, that’s what President Trump spoke about,” Orban said on Hungarian public radio.

The leader of the world’s most powerful country had now “declared the end of that policy,” according to the Hungarian premier, one of Trump’s biggest supporters in Europe.

Under previous administrations, the “US thought it knows what is good, moral, just, and how the world should be, but we felt that… it wanted to impose its will on the whole world, for example on Hungary too,” Orban said.

Trump’s approach means the US can now be viewed differently, the prime minister added.

“We don’t have to defend ourselves against it, or its incompetent attempts to wield cultural influence, but rather can now try to build a partnership on the basis of interests.”

The fiercely nationalist Orban was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump after his shock election victory in 2016 and has regularly praised the US leader’s immigration and security policies.

Trump is increasingly regarded globally as “a phenomenon, an icon… someone who represents something much more than himself,” he said Friday.

After coming to power in 2010, the maverick Hungarian was often accused by Washington of steering his country away from democratic norms.

Former President Barack Obama and Trump’s defeated election rival Hillary Clinton both warned Hungary against clamping down on the judiciary, press, and civil society organizations.

Orban said Friday that US policy towards Hungary in recent decades had often been “unfavorable”.

“I suffered so much with (Clinton) that I cannot even tell you,” he said.

AFP