Trump praises Hungary\'s Orban on immigration

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) U.S. President Donald Trump praised Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a meeting at the White House on Monday (May 13), calling him a tough but respected man who's done the right thing on immigration.

Orban is a nationalist leader who has often had conflicts with the European Union over his anti-immigration campaigns and judicial reforms. He clashed with the administration of then-U.S. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, over what critics said was an erosion of democratic values by his government.

Orban defended his government when asked about democratic reforms, saying his country had passed a new constitution in 2011 that was "functioning well." Senior Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee had told the White House last week they were concerned about Hungary's "downward democratic trajectory." In a letter to Trump, the senators, led by Republican committee chairman Jim Risch and ranking Democrat Bob Menendez, wrote that "In recent years, democracy in Hungary has significantly eroded ... Under Orban, the election process has become less competitive and the judiciary is increasingly controlled by the state."