Is Trump Nominating Hungary’s Ousted Far-Right Leader Viktor Orbán for United Nations Chief?
Under Orbán, Hungary passed a slew of laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
The Trump administration is reportedly looking into backing former Hungarian authoritarian strongman Viktor Orbán as the next United Nations secretary-general.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump officials have floated the idea of Orbán taking charge of the UN, and being supported in the process by the U.S., Russia, and China.
WSJ reports that sources in all three countries have confirmed to them that they are backing his bid.
“As officials from the U.S. and a second country told us, when the U.S., Russia and China all want the same thing at the U.N. Security Council, they usually get it,” WSJ reports.
The former Hungarian prime minister recently lost the parliamentary elections to more moderate Péter Magyar, bringing an end to 16 years of pretty much absolute rule.
Orbán had been an ally of President Donald Trump in Europe. Their policies often aligned on things from immigration to restricting LGBTQ+ rights, especially those of trans people.
Under Orbán, Hungary steadily curbed LGBTQ rights from 2020, like ending legal gender recognition, restricting adoption, banning the so-called “promotion” of homosexuality to minors in 2021, and banning Budapest Pride in 2025. After Magyar’s April 2026 win, police authorised Pride, and in October parliament stripped the 2021 law’s anti-LGBTQ+ provisions.
He has been criticized for going after Hungary’s press, ignoring and being involved in corruption, and more.
He also remained close to both China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The report comes as the five-year term for current secretary-general António Guterres ends on 31 December. The UN General Assembly appoints the secretary-general on the Security Council’s recommendation — the council is made up of permanent members China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States and ten rotating UN member countries. After member states nominate candidates, the Council holds secret straw polls, where any permanent member can veto. The chosen nominee serves a renewable five-year term. Traditionally, the post rotates among regions, with growing calls for a woman to be selected.
“Neither Russia, the United States, nor China will nominate Orbán because we are permanent members of the UN Security Council and we do not nominate anyone for the position of UN Secretary-General,” Russian deputy foreign minister Aleksandr Alimov told the Interfax news agency. He said if they wanted a particular candidate, then they would have to find another country to nominate Orbán.
The WSJ reports that Orbán would only agree to run for the job if it was guaranteed. It is anything but that.
“I do not foresee Poland supporting Viktor Orbán’s candidacy for UN Secretary-General,” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in a social media post, Euronews reports.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrij Sbyha echoed that: “Viktor Orbán, as UN Secretary-General, would put to good use the masterful veto and blackmail skills he has developed over years of derailing major EU decisions.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the possibility of Orbán as UN secretary-general was “funny,” Politico reports.
