Donald Trump Jr. has been engaging with Hungary's semi-authoritarian leadership on matters typically reserved for official United States government representatives.
Knewz.com has learned that during his visit to the far eastern NATO member, the 46-year-old met with the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and gave an address titled “The World According to Donald Trump Jr.”
The journalist, Szabolcs Panyi, was one of the first to disseminate news of the event and did so in an X post where he queried the source funding for the U.S. Republican stalwart’s trip.
“Titled ‘The world according to @DonaldJTrumpJr,’ Trump's son will speak at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) in Budapest on Thursday. MCC is the most important vehicle of Viktor Orbán's foreign influence operations targeting the US, UK & EU. The event is not yet public,” Panyi declared.
According to an update by another reporter, Zoltan Kovacs, the discussion focused on matters pertaining to U.S.-Hungarian policy and touched on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“The talks also covered issues surrounding illegal migration, aligning with Hungary's broader international diplomatic engagements,” and mirroring the U.S. conservatives’ stance.
“Donald Trump Jr.'s visit to Hungary,” Kovac wrote on X, was “at the invitation of the President of the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BKIK), includes a private session at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium where he will meet with institution leaders and students.”
While this visit is seen by Orbán’s Fidesz government as a move towards “strengthening ties with key international figures” and facing “significant global issues like peace negotiations and migration policies,” it strikes a nerve inside U.S. legislation.
Talking to The Independent, Professor Kim Scheppele who is an expert in Sociology and International Affairs explained that it is illegal for U.S. citizens “without [the] authority of the United States,” to “directly or indirectly,” engage a foreign country on matters pertaining to the state.
She elaborated that “any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government” contravened the Logan Act.
Be that as it may, other experts believe that Trump Jr. is unlikely to get prosecuted.
A former assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, Donald Baker, noted that “any action by the Justice Department would be unwise because it would be jumped all over as being political, given the Act really hasn’t been regularly invoked.”
Trump Jr., like his father has been through the legal grinder. As part of the penalties leveled at the former president’s civil fraud case, Trump Jr. along with his brother, Eric, was ordered to pay a total of $8 million in February 2024, per Forbes.
He was also banned from acting as an officer in any New York corporation or legal company including his father's empire, the Trump Organization.