Trump Greets Hungary's Hard-Right Leader In Oval Office

President Trump hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House on Monday, a gesture that two past presidents have avoided granting to the hard-right European leader.

"People have a lot of respect for this Prime Minister," said the president in a photo-op in the Oval Office before their meeting. Trump went on to warmly praise the Hungarian leader. "He's a respected man. And I know he's a tough man, but he's a respected man. And he's done the right thing, according to many people, on immigration."

Orbán is on record calling Syrian refugees "Muslim invaders," and many human rights activists are concerned about the signals Trump is sending with this meeting, as NPR's Michele Kelemen reports:

"Hungarian Human Rights Lawyer Marta Pardavi is worried about where her country is heading. She's watched Victor Orbán's government demonize groups like hers — the Hungarian Helsinki Committee--which provides legal services for asylums seekers and for Hungarians.

" 'We've had clients in the past few years who've been fired from their jobs for simply expressing a political opinion that was not supportive of the current government,' she says.

"Pardavi says the Orbán government has been passing laws that have no place in a democracy. But she wasn't holding her breath that President Trump would raise any of that, even with a NATO ally."