Mick Mulvaney is Hungary’s new best friend in the White House

I was quite surprised when the Hungarian Government issued an official report that on Friday, February 9, 2018 Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Capacities, had a one-hour meeting with Mick Mulvaney, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the White House. According to the Hungarians Mr. Mulvaney was “urging renewal of Hungarian-US relations.”

Hungarian Minister Zoltán Balog (left) and Mick Mulvaney in the White House.

Better US relations with the pro-Putin, pro-Iranian Orbán regime? Authoritarian Mr. Orbán has been trying to get an invitation to the White House since 2010. Now it seems that Minister Balog was able to beat him into the White House for the meeting with Mulvaney. Hungary also released several photos of Mr. Mulvaney, Mr. Balog and Hungary’s Ambassador to the US, László Szabó. By the way, Mr. Mulvaney has never confirmed the meeting.

According to the Hungarian announcement “they reviewed the economic and security policy aspects of Hungarian-US relations, and also spoke about the remarkable efforts the Hungarian government is making in the interest of persecuted Christians.”

Ambassador Szabó (left), Balog and Mulvaney (right) discussed the “renewal of Hungarian-US relations” in February, 2018.

This is strange. The 50-year old Mr. Mulvaney had no previous connection to Hungary. Why would he spend an hour of his precious time discussing this tiny European country’s “economic and security policy aspects” and treatment of Christian refugees? What does it have to do with the management and budget of the White House?

Well Folks, it seems that we got our answer. “We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” Mr. Mulvaney recently told 1,300 bankers and lobbyists at an American Bankers Association conference in Washington. “If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.” (Read more about Mulvaney’s comments here.)

Now this is what I call honest and clear talk. Pay up if you expect face time with Trump administration officials.

The Orbán regime is spending millions of dollars on lobbying in Washington D.C. Hungary hired ex-Congressman Connie Mack who has signed a multi-year $5-million contract. Recently the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has hired a lobbying firm, BSI Public Affairs Inc., headed by Israeli lobbyists Tzvika Brot and Ariel Sender. There are also indications that non-profit Hungarian emigre organizations are also engaged in illegal political lobbying in the US. (Read more about Hungary’s lobbying in the US.)

György Lázár

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