President Donald Trump met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on May 13, a conversation that primed Trump to be hostile to and suspicious of Ukraine.
John Bolton, former national security adviser, and Fiona Hill, former NSC director for Eurasian and Russian affairs, urged Trump not to take the meeting, but were shouted down by acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, according to the New York Times.
During the meeting, Trump’s perspective on Ukraine was molded by Orban who espouses a dislike of the country shared by Rudy Giuliani and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Just days later, Trump met with the returning U.S. delegation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inauguration and asserted that the Ukrainians were “terrible people.”
