Inside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's not-so-secret mission to elect Trump

Hungary 's far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has nurtured close ties with former President Donald Trump .

Sources close to the Hungarian government describe the use of Hungarian government-funded think tanks as conduits used to exchange information with conservative U.S. think tanks.

Orbán 's government has urged the Trump campaign to chart an isolationist path on the Ukraine conflict.

Hungary has not hired agents in Washington to lobby for its interests it is one of the few nations without a single active firm or individual registered with the U.S. Justice Department .

The Danube Institute paid a visiting lecturer $ 8,400 to write a 10 -page paper "on Hungarian migration policy and lessons learned for the state of Texas " Danube 's payments to visiting scholars, writers, and speakers have risen during that time.

Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán is widely seen as Putin 's closest ally in the EU .

The two met in July at Mar-a-Lago during Orbán 's "peace mission" right after visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin .

Orbán has vetoed multiple EU decisions to support Ukraine since Russia 's full-scale invasion started.