Asked ¡°Who Chooses Budapest?¡± by the White House

Network of observers.

"I didn't expect that a simple question about the location of the US-Russia summit would make the White House spokesperson lose control."

What's the problem? According to a report by the Huffington Post on the 17th, U.S. President Trump had a long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the 16th, and the two sides agreed to hold a face-to-face meeting in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Given the importance of this place, the media reporter asked the White House,"Who chose Budapest as the meeting venue?"

Unexpectedly, a few minutes later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt replied, "Your mom did."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's answer shocked reporters (video screenshot)

Another minute later, Steven Zhang, director of the White House Office of Communications, added a more concise response,"Your mom."£¨Your mom.£©

The Huffington Post that the media then asked Levitt if she thought her answer was very interesting.

According to reports, Levitt wrote,"It's interesting that you actually think of yourself as a reporter. You're a far-left sycophat, and no one takes you seriously. Including your colleagues in the media circle, they just didn't tell you in person. Stop sending me your hypocritical, biased bullshit questions."

The Huffington Post said the media was deeply shocked by this and "dared not ask any more questions."

When asked whether ¡°your mother¡± was appropriate as an official answer, White House spokesman Taylor Rogers said the response was ¡°very appropriate.¡±

Rogers also claimed that "the people who received the information were not real journalists, but Democratic activists." Therefore, it was very appropriate that they received such a response. The White House press team handles and responds to hundreds of serious inquiries from real reporters every day, and we have no time to waste on partisan opportunists!"

On Friday afternoon, Steven Chang also forwarded an X post about the conversation without adding any additional comments.

The U.S. ¡°Beast Daily¡± assessed that the government¡¯s response to reasonable information inquiries was so rough, ¡°like a childish insulting child,¡± and ¡°BuzzFeed¡± was shocked to point out, ¡°incredibly childish answers,¡± and conservatives like Fox News appreciated Trump¡¯s team¡¯s joke on leftist media.

Steven Zhang (left) forwarded the report, the photo on the right is Levitte

On October 16, local time, U.S. President Trump posted on social media saying that he had a long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that day, mainly discussing issues such as ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict and US-Russia trade. The two sides will hold face-to-face meeting in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Russian Presidential Assistant Ushakov later confirmed the news, and Hungary also said it was preparing for the US-Russian presidential meeting.

Reuters reported on the 17th that the new Put meeting was chosen in Hungary, which surprised European diplomats and analysts. "Now, EU countries will be embarrassed."

Hungary is a member of NATO and another bloc determined to aid Ukraine and isolate Russia, the European Union. Ironically, in 1994, it was there that the United States, Britain and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum to provide security guarantees for Ukraine in exchange for Kiev giving up its nuclear weapons. After the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, Hungary was regarded as a "thorn in the side" by the EU because of its opposition to military aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.

When asked if Trump knew the special significance of Budapest in Russia-Ukraine relations, Jim Townsend, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, told the Huffington Post, "I'm sure Trump doesn't know and doesn't care."

He added,"Trump likes (Hungarian Prime Minister) Orban and may feel he is doing Orban a favor by choosing here. Moreover, Putin is also a friend of Orban. Most countries in the world would not consider Budapest neutral for a meeting like this, but I guess Trump and Putin would not."

According to media reports such as Politico EU and EuroNews Network, in addition to position issues, the EU will also face embarrassing issues such as flight bans, arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court, and internal conflicts between the EU and Hungary.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Putin, but few observers believe that this will be an obstacle to Budapest.

"Politico EU" also mentioned that since Russian aircraft are prohibited from flying over EU airspace, if Putin wants to reach Budapest, he must violate EU measures, take great risks to fly over Ukraine, or detour the Balkans.

The Ukrainian newspaper, citing the airline news site "airlive", on the 18th that Putin's special aircraft could be orbiting south and traveling to Hungary through Turkish and Serbian airspace, according to the report, compared to a direct route of about 1,500 kilometers, the distance around the road line could be about 5,000 kilometers, increasing the flight time by about 3 hours.

airlive reports referring to Putin's special flight circumference route

The Russian newspaper also paid attention to the news published on the "airlive" website, and said that Putin might go to Hungary via the Black Sea, Turkey, the Greek coast, Albania, Montenegro and Serbia to meet Trump.

Red Snow Consulting geopolitical analyst Boothold Fellady said choosing Budapest as a meeting place meant Putin could be ¡°one stone more than a bird.¡±

¡°He will be holding talks on the conflict in Ukraine in one EU country while the EU leaders are absent,¡± he said, ¡°for Putin, this is a more symbolic, multi-level blow to Europe, much stronger than a meeting in Turkey or elsewhere.¡±

The Observer Network.