NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump met with Polish President Andrzej Duda in New York on Wednesday, the latest in a series of meetings with foreign leaders as Europe braces for the possibility of a second Trump term.
The presumptive Republican nominee hosted Duda for a dinner at Trump Tower, where the two would discuss topics including Ukraine. Duda, who has long expressed his admiration for Trump, is also a staunch supporter of Ukraine and has encouraged Washington to provide more aid to Kiev amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. That funding has been blocked by Trump allies in Congress.
When he arrived, Trump praised the Polish president, saying: “He has done a fantastic job and he is my friend.”
“We had four great years together,” Trump added. “We fully support Poland.”
U.S. allies around the world were blindsided by Trump’s surprise victory in 2016, leaving them scrambling to build relationships with a president who often attacked longstanding treaties and alliances they valued. Organizing meetings with him during the 2024 campaign suggests they don’t want to fall behind again.
Even as he faces trial on one of four criminal charges against him, Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden are locked in a rematch that most observers expect will be extremely close in November.
“The polls are close,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a Biden ally and a key voice in his party on foreign affairs. “If I were a foreign leader — and there is precedent for meeting with candidates who have been nominated or are on their way to being nominated — I would probably do it too.”
Murphy noted that former President Barack Obama went on an extended international tour and met with foreign leaders when he first ran for the White House. That included Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who challenged Obama in 2012 and whose trip included a stop in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
Duda’s visit comes a week after Trump met with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, another NATO member and a leading supporter of support for Ukraine, at the former president’s estate in Florida.
And last month, Trump hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an autocrat who has the closest relations with Russia of any European Union country. Orban shared a montage of footage from the visit on his Instagram feed, including an image of him and his staff meeting with Trump and the former president’s aides in a scene that resembled an official bilateral meeting.
Trump also briefly met in February with Javier Milei, Argentina’s fiery, right-wing populist president who ran a Trump-inspired campaign, complete with red “Make Argentina Great Again” hats. Milei gave Trump an excited hug backstage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, according to a video posted by a Trump campaign official.
Biden administration officials have been careful not to publicly interfere in foreign leaders’ meetings with Trump, who they acknowledge has a real chance of winning the race.
While some officials have privately expressed frustration with such meetings, they are aware that any criticism would open the US to accusations of hypocrisy because senior US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, regularly meet with foreign opposition figures at various forums in the United States. and abroad.
Security and policy officials monitor the travel plans of foreign officials visiting the U.S. but generally have no say in where they go or who they meet with, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the protocol. discuss.
Trump is back in his hometown this week for the start of his criminal hush-money trial, which has dramatically limited his ability to travel and campaign. While in town, aides planned a series of events that began Tuesday night when Trump, after court adjourned, stopped by a Harlem bodega where a man was murdered to rail against crime and denounce the district attorney. destruction that had made him the first former president in the US. American history is on criminal trial.
Duda, a right-wing populist who once proposed naming a military base in his country “Fort Trump,” described the dinner earlier Wednesday as a private gathering among friends at Trump’s former residence while he is in town for meetings at the United Nations . .
“I have been invited by Mr. Donald Trump to his private apartment,” Duda told reporters, saying it was “a normal practice when a country has good relations with another country” to want those relations to be as strong as possible are with “the representatives of different sides of the political scene.”
He described a friendly relationship with Trump, built over years of cooperation.
“We know each other as people. As two, I can somehow say friends,” said Duda, whose term ends in 2025.
Duda’s visit comes as Republicans in the House of Representatives bicker over a $95 billion foreign aid bill that would provide new funding to Ukraine, including money for the U.S. military to replace depleting weapons stockpiles.
Many Trump allies in the House of Representatives are strongly opposed to helping Ukraine, even as the country warns it is struggling amid a new Russian offensive. Trump has said he may be open to help in the form of a loan.
Like Cameron, Duda’s efforts to push the U.S. to approve additional aid have aligned him with Biden, who has struggled for six months to secure additional congressional funding.
One area where Trump and Duda agree when it comes to the conflict is their efforts to push NATO members to increase their defense spending. Duda has called on his fellow alliance members to increase their spending to 3% of gross domestic product as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine. That would represent a significant increase over the current target of 2% by 2024.
Trump, in a stunning break with past American precedent, has long been critical of the Western alliance and has threatened not to defend member states that fail to meet that spending target. This threat goes to the heart of the alliance’s Article 5, which states that any attack on one NATO member will be considered an attack on all.
In February, Trump went even further, saying he once told leaders he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever they want” to members who are — in his words — “delinquent.”
Duda suggested he planned to bring up his proposal at dinner.
“I have never spoken to President Donald Trump about my proposal to increase NATO defense spending from 2% to 3% of GDP, but I think his approach to it will be positive,” he said.
The visit received mixed reactions in Poland, where fears of Russia are high and Duda’s friendly relationship with Trump has been a source of controversy.
Poland’s centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a political opponent of Duda, was critical of the dinner but expressed hope that Duda would use it as an opportunity “to raise the issue of clearly taking sides of the Western world, democracy and Europe in this Ukrainian-Russian conflict. conflict.”
Duda, for his part, said he was not concerned as presidents regularly meet with different politicians during foreign trips.
“No, I am not concerned because presidents meet with their colleagues, especially those who have held presidential positions in their respective countries,” he said. “This is normal practice, there is nothing unusual here.”
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Scislowska reported from Warsaw. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Zeke Miller and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.