Poland’s president turns into the newest chief to go to Donald Trump as allies eye a doable return

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump met Wednesday in New York with Polish President Andrzej Duda, the newest in a collection of conferences with international leaders as Europe braces for the potential of a second Trump time period.

The presumptive Republican nominee hosted Duda for dinner at Trump Tower, the place the 2 have been anticipated to debate Ukraine, amongst different matters. Duda, who has lengthy expressed admiration for Trump, can be a staunch supporter of Ukraine and has inspired Washington to offer 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 executed a implausible job and he’s my buddy.”

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

U.S. allies internationally have 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 in the course of the 2024 marketing campaign suggests they do not need to be behind once more.

Whilst he goes on trial for one of many 4 legal indictments in opposition to him, Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden are locked in a rematch that almost all observers count on will probably be exceedingly shut in November.

“The polls are shut,” mentioned Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a Biden ally and a serious voice in his occasion on international affairs. “If I have been a international chief — and there’s a precedent hooked up to assembly with candidates who’re nominated or on the trail to being nominated — I’d in all probability do it too.”

Murphy famous that former President Barack Obama did a prolonged worldwide tour and met with international 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 a week after Trump met with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, one other NATO member and key proponent of supporting Ukraine, on the former president’s Florida property.

And final month, Trump hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an autocrat who has maintained the closest relationship with Russia amongst European Union nations. Orban shared a montage of footage of the go to on his Instagram feed, with included a picture of him and his workers assembly with Trump and the previous president’s aides in a scene that regarded 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 campaign inspired by Trump, full with crimson “Make Argentina Nice Once more” hats. Milei gave Trump an excited hug backstage on the annual Conservative Political Motion Convention exterior Washington, in keeping with video posted by a Trump marketing campaign aide.

Biden administration officers have been cautious to not weigh in publicly on international leaders’ conferences with Trump, who they acknowledge has an actual likelihood of successful the race.

Whereas some officers have privately expressed frustration with such conferences, they’re conscious 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 regularly with international opposition figures at varied boards in the US and overseas.

Safety and coverage officers monitor the journey plans of international officers visiting the U.S., however typically don’t have a say in the place they go or with whom they meet, in keeping 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 criminal hush money trial, which has dramatically restricted his means to journey and marketing campaign. Whereas on the town, aides have been planning a collection of occasions that started Tuesday evening when Trump, after court docket adjourned, stopped by a Harlem bodega the place a person was killed to rail in opposition to crime and blast the district lawyer who made him the primary former president in U.S. historical past to face legal trial.

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

“I’ve been invited by Mr. Donald Trump to his non-public condominium,” Duda instructed reporters, saying it was “a traditional follow 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.”

He described a pleasant relationship with Trump constructed over years of working collectively.

“We all know one another as individuals. Like two, I can say not directly, mates,” mentioned Duda, whose time period ends in 2025.

Duda’s go to comes as House Republicans wrangle over a $95 billion foreign aid bill that would supply new funding to Ukraine, together with cash for the U.S. navy to exchange depleting weapon provides.

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

Like Cameron, Duda’s efforts to push the U.S. to approve extra help put him in frequent trigger with Biden, who has struggled for six months to unlock extra congressional funding.

One space the place Trump and Duda agree on the subject of the battle are their efforts to push NATO members to extend their protection spending. Duda has called on fellow members of the alliance to lift their spending to three% of gross home product as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine. That might characterize a big enhance from the present dedication of two% by 2024.

Trump, in a surprising break from previous U.S. precedent, has lengthy been important of the Western alliance and has threatened to not defend member nations that don’t hit that spending aim. That menace strikes on the coronary heart of the alliance’s Article 5, which states that any assault in opposition to one NATO member will probably be thought of an assault in opposition to 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 are — in his phrases — “delinquent.”

Duda advised he meant to lift his proposal on the dinner.

“I’ve by no means talked with President Donald Trump about my proposal of elevating the spending on protection of NATO nations from 2% to three% of GDP, however I feel that his method to it is going to be optimistic,” he mentioned.

The go to was met with mixed reaction 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 important of the dinner however expressed hope that Duda would use it as a possibility “to lift the difficulty of clearly siding with the Western world, democracy and Europe on this Ukrainian-Russian battle.”

Duda, for his half, mentioned he wasn’t anxious since presidents usually meet with varied politicians throughout international journeys.

“No, I’m not anxious as a result of presidents meet with their colleagues, particularly with those that had held presidential places of work of their respective nations,” he mentioned. “That is common follow, there’s nothing extraordinary right here.”

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Scislowska reported from Warsaw. Related Press writers Matthew Lee, Zeke Miller and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.