What a couple of Kens.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday gifted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a horse, during the Turkish leader’s trip to Budapest. Erdoğan had first lavished a Turkish-made electric vehicle on Orbán during the strongman love-in.
Orbán described the horse-for-car tradeoff as “The best deal I’ve ever made. For one horse power, I got 435,” as he greeted Erdoğan.
In the Hollywood blockbuster “Barbie,” horses symbolize the epitome of masculinity — at least according to Ryan Gosling’s occasionally delusional character Ken, as he set up his deranged Mojo Dojo Casa House in Kendom. (Spoiler alert: Barbie got the last word.)
Orbán has been bucking the EU over Ukraine, and largely resisted European leaders’ efforts to rein him in at the European Council summit in Brussels last week.
Orbán and Erdoğan have been stablemates in slow-walking Sweden’s accession into NATO, which has prompted the military alliance’s top boss to start applying the whip to the Turkish leader.
“We wish to further strengthen our ties in areas such as defense and energy, where we already have fruitful cooperation,” Erdoğan said at his meeting with Orbán.
The horse was unavailable for comment.