- Trump told President Karol Nawrocki the U.S. is prepared to expand its 8,000-strong military presence in Poland.
- The meeting underscores Warsaw’s push for stronger U.S. security guarantees amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.
- Nawrocki, a conservative close to Trump’s movement, won the election narrowly on a “Poland first” platform while pledging support for Ukraine but opposing NATO membership.
US President Donald Trump told his Polish counterpart the United States was ready to increase its military presence in the Central European nation, one of the countries on NATO’s so-called “eastern flank” warily watching Russia’s actions.
Trump welcomed conservative President Karol Nawrocki to Washington in an event highlighted by a flyover of US F-16 fighter jets honoring a Polish military pilot who had died last month in a crash.
Asked if he planned to keep US forces deployed to Poland, Trump replied in the affirmative.
“We’ll put more there if they want,” he added, while citing the United States’ “tremendous relationship” with Poland, one of the more important military and political allies of Ukraine during its war with Russia.
“We never even thought in terms of removing soldiers from Poland.”
“We’re with Poland all the way, and we’ll help Poland protect itself,” Trump added.
Warsaw has long sought an increased US military presence in Poland. The United States has based troops in Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and other European nations since the end of World War II, initially to serve as a deterrence to Soviet aggression on the Continent.
The first permanently stationed US troops arrived in Poland in March 2023. There are an estimated 8,000 US troops now garrisoned in Poland, some on a rotational basis.
Nawrocki added that it is “the first time in history” that Poland has been happy to host foreign troops.
Nawrocki, a vocal admirer of the US leader, said after the talks with Trump that the two presidents had discussed bolstering troop levels, adding that Trump had strongly guaranteed Poland’s security.
“The success of his [Nawrocki’s] special relationship with the MAGA movement and with President Trump would be if the United States increased its presence in Poland,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters a day earlier — a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Nawrocki was elected in a narrow contest following a campaign echoing many of Trump’s slogans and had promised a “Poland first” policy, worrying some in Europe over the country’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The election result dealt a major setback to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a pro-Europe, centrist leader and vocal supporter of Ukraine who had backed Nawrocki’s liberal opponent.
Nawrocki, too, has voiced support for Ukraine in its war against invading Russian forces. But he has said he opposes NATO membership for Ukraine, a view more and more Poles appear to share.
Although largely supportive of Kyiv’s fight against Russia, many Poles have grown impatient with the influx of some 1.5 million Ukrainian war refugees and the related costs in the country.
Despite some tensions within the Polish leadership, the European Union, and the United States, Nawrocki said there is unity and clarity about the Russian threat.
“Regardless of the differences that exist within the European Union, regardless of the differences that exist in Poland between me and the Polish government, I guarantee that on security matters, including at this closed meeting, I spoke unequivocally about how I perceive [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and the threat he poses to the free world,” Nawrocki said.
Trump said that “you’ll see things happen” if Putin does not move toward peace in his war on Ukraine, building on his long-standing threats of sanctions or tariffs on Moscow.
“I have no message to President Putin. He knows where I stand, and he’ll make a decision one way or the other,” Trump told reporters.
A White House official told AFP that Trump plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on September 4, along with other European leaders.
Zelenskyy and Kyiv’s European allies in the “Coalition of the Willing” are scheduled to meet on September 4 in Paris to discuss the situation in Ukraine and potential security guarantees for the country following any peace deal with Russia.