Trump told reporters that the United States is “looking at” Hungary’s request for relief f
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is considering granting Hungary an exemption from sanctions on Russian oil to help the landlocked European nation maintain access to critical energy supplies, Fox News reported.
Speaking at a joint meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Trump told reporters that the United States is “looking at” Hungary’s request for relief from the sanctions his administration imposed last month on Russia’s state-run oil companies.
“We’re looking at it because it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,” Trump said during a bilateral lunch with Orban at the White House. “They don’t have the advantage of having seas. It’s a great country. It’s a big country. But they don’t have a sea, they don’t have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem.”
The meeting was also attended by Vice President JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio, and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Trump’s comments came just weeks after his administration announced sweeping sanctions on Russia’s major oil firms, Rosneft and Lukoil, in October. The sanctions were introduced after Moscow withdrew from negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
“Every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere,” Trump said at the time, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I just felt it was time. We’ve waited a long time.”
The sanctions represent one of the toughest policy actions Trump has taken since returning to office, with the goal of increasing pressure on Moscow to make concessions in the ongoing conflict with Kyiv.
However, Hungary, which imports most of its oil and gas through pipelines from Russia, has long opposed strict European and US sanctions targeting Russian energy. Prime Minister Orban, one of the few European leaders maintaining close ties with Moscow, has repeatedly argued that such restrictions harm Hungary’s economy more than they hurt Russia.
“We are thinking about how to build a sustainable system for the Hungarian economy because Hungary is very dependent on Russian oil and gas,” Orban said last month. “Without them, energy prices will skyrocket, causing shortages in our supplies,” he was quoted as saying by Fox News.
Ahead of Friday’s meeting, Orban reiterated that the pipeline network supplying Hungary with Russian oil and gas is “vital” to the country’s stability and that he would press his case directly with President Trump.
During their bilateral talks, the two leaders also discussed the continuing Russia–Ukraine war. Trump expressed optimism that the conflict “will end soon,” adding, “The basic dispute is they just don’t want to stop yet. And I think they will. I think it’s taking a big toll on Russia.”
Both Trump and Orban reportedly agreed that it would take a “miracle” for Ukraine to achieve victory, given the current state of the war.
The meeting also reflected the leaders’ close personal rapport, with both exchanging compliments throughout their discussions. Trump praised Orban as “a great leader,” commending his firm stance on immigration.
“He’s respected all over. Not necessarily liked by some of the leaders, but those leaders have proven to be wrong,” Trump said. “If you look at his stance on immigration, Europe made tremendous mistakes. He has not made a mistake.”
Orban, in turn, expressed gratitude to Trump for “restoring” the strength of US-Hungary relations, which he claimed had deteriorated during the Biden administration.
“After you left the presidency, everything was basically blocked, ruined, and cancelled. A lot of harm done by the previous administration. In the last ten months, President, what you have done, we are very much grateful for that,” Orban said. “You restored the old level of the relationship. You improved the bilateral relations. You repaired what was done badly by the previous administration.”
The White House has not yet announced when a final decision on Hungary’s request for an exemption from the Russian oil sanctions will be made.
