Poland’s president visits Donald Trump as allies eye a possible return : NPR

Former President Donald Trump met Wednesday in New York with Polish President Andrzej Duda, the most recent in a sequence of conferences with overseas leaders as Europe braces for the potential for a second Trump time period.

The presumptive Republican nominee hosted Duda at Trump Tower, the place the 2 mentioned the warfare in Ukraine and Duda’s push to spice up NATO members’ protection spending, in line with a readout from Trump’s marketing campaign. Duda, who has lengthy expressed admiration for Trump, can be a staunch supporter of Ukraine and has inspired Washington to supply extra help to Kyiv amid Russian’s ongoing invasion. That funding has been held up by Trump allies in Congress.

As he arrived, Trump praised the Polish president, saying, “He is completed a improbable job and he is my buddy.”

“We had 4 nice years collectively,” Trump added. “We’re behind Poland all the best way.”

Following the virtually 2 1/2 hour assembly, Duda stated solely that it was a “pleasant assembly in very good ambiance.”

His aide, Wojciech Kolarski, additionally in attendance, described it as an “wonderful assembly” of “two associates who reminisced on the time when for 4 years they cooperated whereas holding presidential places of work,” a time that was “very fruitful for Polish-U.S. relations.”

Duda is the most recent overseas chief to fulfill with Trump within the weeks since he locked up the Republican nomination. U.S. allies the world over had been caught off guard by Trump’s shock 2016 win, forcing them to scramble to construct relationships with a president who usually attacked longstanding treaties and alliances they valued. Organising conferences with him throughout the 2024 marketing campaign suggests they do not wish to be behind once more.

At the same time as he goes on trial for one of many 4 felony indictments towards him, Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden are locked in a rematch that almost all observers anticipate shall be exceedingly shut in November.

Whereas some in Poland anxious the go to may injury the nation’s relationship with Biden, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. — a Biden ally and a serious voice in his get together on overseas affairs — stated such conferences make sense.

“The polls are shut,” he stated. “If I had been a overseas chief — and there is a precedent connected to assembly with candidates who’re nominated or on the trail to being nominated — I would most likely do it too.”

Murphy famous that former President Barack Obama did a prolonged worldwide tour and met with overseas leaders when he first ran for the White Home. So did Mitt Romney, the previous Massachusetts governor, who challenged Obama in 2012 and whose journey included a cease in Poland’s capital, Warsaw.

Duda’s go to comes every week after Trump met with British Overseas Secretary David Cameron, one other NATO member and key proponent of supporting Ukraine, on the former president’s Florida property.

In March, Trump hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an autocrat who has maintained the closest relationship with Russia amongst European Union international locations. Orbán shared a montage of footage of the go to on his Instagram feed, which included a picture of him and his employees assembly with Trump and the previous president’s aides in a scene that seemed like an official bilateral assembly.

Trump additionally met briefly in February with Javier Milei, the fiery, right-wing populist president of Argentina who ran a marketing campaign impressed by Trump, full with purple “Make Argentina Nice Once more” hats. Milei gave Trump an excited hug backstage on the annual Conservative Political Motion Convention outdoors Washington, in line with video posted by a Trump marketing campaign aide.

Biden administration officers have been cautious to not weigh in publicly on overseas leaders’ conferences with Trump, acknowledging he has an actual likelihood of profitable the race.

Whereas some officers have privately expressed frustration with such conferences, they’re aware that any criticism would open the U.S. to fees of hypocrisy as a result of senior American officers, together with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meet steadily with overseas opposition figures at varied boards in the USA and overseas.

Safety and coverage officers monitor the journey plans of overseas officers visiting the U.S., however typically haven’t got a say in the place they go or with whom they meet, in line with an administration official who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate protocol.

Trump has been again in his hometown this week for the beginning of his felony hush cash trial, which has dramatically restricted his means to journey and marketing campaign. Whereas on the town, aides have been planning a sequence of occasions that started Tuesday night when Trump, after court docket adjourned, stopped by a Harlem bodega the place a person was killed to rail towards crime, and to blast the district lawyer who made him the primary former president in U.S. historical past to face felony trial.

Duda, a right-wing populist who as soon as proposed naming a army base in his nation “Fort Trump,” described the dinner earlier Wednesday as a non-public get-together between associates at Trump’s former residence whereas he’s on the town for conferences on the United Nations, the place Duda is to ship a speech.

“I’ve been invited by Mr. Donald Trump to his non-public condominium,” Duda instructed reporters, saying it was “a traditional observe when one nation has good relations with one other nation” to need these relations to be as sturdy as “doable with the representatives of varied sides of the political stage.”

“We all know one another as individuals. Like two, I can say ultimately, associates,” stated Duda, whose time period ends in 2025.

Duda’s go to comes as Home Republicans wrangle over a $95 billion overseas help invoice that would offer new funding to Ukraine, together with cash for the U.S. army to exchange depleting weapon provides. Polish leaders have been urging the Home to approve the help invoice and ease home considerations.

Many Trump allies within the Home are fiercely against aiding Ukraine, even because the nation warns that it’s struggling amid a contemporary Russian offensive. Trump has stated he is perhaps open to assist within the type of a mortgage.

One space the place Trump and Duda agree in relation to the battle is a want to push NATO members to extend their protection spending. Duda has referred to as on fellow members of the alliance to boost their spending to three% of gross home product as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine. That will signify a major improve from the present dedication of two% by 2024.

Trump, in a shocking break from U.S. precedent, has lengthy been crucial of the Western alliance and has threatened to not defend member nations that don’t hit that spending aim. That risk strikes on the coronary heart of the alliance’s Article 5, which states that any assault towards one NATO member shall be thought of an assault towards all.

In February, Trump went even additional, recounting that he’d as soon as instructed leaders that he would “encourage” Russia to “do regardless of the hell they need” to members which might be — in his phrases — “delinquent.”

Trump’s marketing campaign stated the 2 mentioned the NATO proposal throughout the assembly. The 2 additionally mentioned Israel and the Center East, Trump’s 2017 journey to Warsaw, “and plenty of different matters having to do with attending to world peace,” the marketing campaign stated in its readout, which described the boys as “nice associates.”

The go to was met with blended response in Poland, the place fears of Russia run excessive and Duda’s pleasant relationship with Trump has been a supply of controversy.

Poland’s centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a political opponent of Duda, was crucial of the dinner however expressed hope that Duda would use it as a chance “to boost the problem of clearly siding with the Western world, democracy and Europe on this Ukrainian-Russian battle.”