Analysis: Fighter jets scream over White House as Trump welcomes Polish leader he backed

WASHINGTON — “America First” on Wednesday gave its Polish offshoot a thunderous military welcome.

Trump met Wednesday at the White House with an ideological peer, newly elected Polish President Karol Nawrocki — whom the American leader endorsed during the country’s June presidential election. American F-35 and F-16 fighter jets rumbled overhead as the pair stood under a mostly clear sky on the executive mansion’s South Lawn.

“I don’t endorse too many people, but I endorsed him and I was very proud of that,” Trump said. For his part, Nawrocki touted the “strongest relations that we’ve ever had,” adding of the U.S. president: “I’m very grateful for your support. … Your support was very important.” When Nawrocki said he got strong support from the Polish diaspora living in the U.S., Trump quipped, “They voted for me.”

As Trump has grown somewhat frustrated again with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his unwillingness to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Nawrocki arrived in Washington looking to deepen ties with Trump and warn against Russian aggression.

Nowracki’s Trump-like campaign rhetoric included criticisms of Western European and NATO countries over their levels of defense spending, as well as anti-immigrant proposals — including those targeting Ukrainian refugees in his country.

“Warsaw’s Presidential Palace will likely seek a more prominent role in Poland-U.S. relations given Nawrocki’s ideological alignment with Trump. Nawrocki could become Trump’s mouthpiece on criticizing Europeans for being weak on defense,” Marta Prochwicz Jazowska, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Affairs, wrote after Nawrocki’s election in June. “Nawrocki’s skepticism toward Germany and France exemplifies Poland’s historic distrust of Western Europe to guarantee its security.”

“Nawrocki cannot block Poland’s logistical support and military transfers to Ukraine, but he can significantly influence the public discourse,” Jazowska added. “The worst-case scenario would be growing public skepticism toward Ukraine’s potential future EU accession, leading a future Polish government to declare a referendum on the issue.”

Here are three takeaways from Trump’s meeting with the conservative Polish leader and his interaction with reporters in the Oval Office:

‘Won’t have any Democrat votes‘

Trump was initially optimistic when asked about meeting a Sept. 30 government funding deadline, but his immediate criticism of Democratic lawmakers undermined his prediction of an upcoming deal.

“Yeah, I do,” he replied when asked if Congress and the White House could avoid a government shutdown.

But then came this: “I think the Republicans will vote for (a funding) extension. We won’t have any Democrat votes.”

Only that Republicans lack the required 60 votes in the Senate to pass any spending bill, and GOP fiscal hawks in the House have long opposed continuing resolutions, meaning some Democratic votes could be needed in that chamber.

“We could give the greatest budget ever, tax cut of 50 percent, everybody taken care of. Perfect for women, perfect for men, perfect for minorities, perfect for everything, and we wouldn’t get one vote from the Democrats because they’ve lost their mind,” the president said.

“They have ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’” he added. “No matter what we did, no matter how good you could and you could give them everything that they’ve ever dreamed of, and you wouldn’t get one vote.”

On the Senate floor earlier Wednesday, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said one way to get votes from his caucus would be through bipartisan talks.

“The only way to avoid a shutdown is to work in a bipartisan way with a bill that can get both Democratic and Republican votes in the Senate,” he said, warning that shy of cross-party negotiations, Democrats are “not going to bail Republicans out of their own chaos.”

Putin ‘knows where I stand’

Trump called for movement toward an end to the “stupid” Russia-Ukraine conflict within the next two weeks, bemoaning the war’s striking death toll. But he declined to send a new message directly to Putin.

“He knows where I stand,” Trump said of his Russian counterpart. “And he’ll make a decision one way or the other. Whatever his decision is, we’ll either be happy about it or unhappy, and if we’re unhappy about it, you’ll see things happen. … I’m having a conversation with him very shortly, and I’ll know pretty much what we’re going to be doing.”

Trump squabbled with a Polish radio reporter about whether he had, since returning to office in January, taken any action to change Putin’s behavior on Ukraine. The U.S. leader noted that he had applied sanctions on Moscow and India over the South Asian nation’s purchase of Russian energy products. And he said future sanctions remained on the table, something a large number of GOP and Democratic senators support.

“Would you say that putting secondary sanctions on India, the largest purchaser outside of China, they’re almost equal? Would you say there was no action that cost hundreds of billions of dollars to Russia? You call that no action,” Trump shot back. “And I haven’t done phase two yet or phase three.

“But when you say there’s no action,” he continued, “I think you ought to get yourself a new job.”

‘We’ll put more there’

Trump’s hopes for his relationship with Nawrocki were clear from the early moments of the Polish leader’s Wednesday visit, when four F-35s, then eight U.S. fighter jets, in two teams of four, screamed over the White House.

The group of F-35 fighters flew west to east, then the F-16s flew south to north, performing the “missing man” formation in honor of a Polish pilot who died during an Aug. 28 airshow crash.

The rare flyover was a clear indication that Trump wanted to impress his younger counterpart — and send a message to European leaders, Putin and Zelenskyy about where his ideological allegiances lie on the Old Continent.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly wrote on X that the use of the war planes was intended, in part, to “capture the special relationship between our two countries.” Trump later expanded on that descriptor, calling it a “very special relationship.”

The term “special relationship” was coined by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to describe his country’s long alliance with Washington.

“American machines opened our meeting,” Nawrocki said, adding that Poland was eager to begin using F-35 fighters. “It was great.”

Earlier this summer, Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Steve Daines, R-Mont., said Poland had been “clear-eyed” about the threat environment faced by Europe.

“They’ve made significant investments in energy security as well as defensive capability. The country already spends over 4 percent of GDP on defense and has committed now to the new benchmark of 5 percent,” Daines said at a July 22 hearing. “Furthermore, of course, the U.S. has a permanent troop presence in Poland, and I know that’s a presence that Poland supports.”

To that end, Trump on Wednesday declared: “We’ll put more there, if they want.”

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