U.S.-POLAND RELATIONS TRANSCEND TRUMP'S TRANSACTIONAL DIPLOMACY

BY MIECZYSŁAW P. BODUSZYŃSKI AND KAMIL LUNGU

Yesterday, record numbers of Poles voted in the second round of a presidential election. They chose between the incumbent, Andrzej Duda, who is close to the conservative-populist party that currently governs Poland, and Rafał Trzaskowski, the more liberal mayor of Warsaw. In the end, Duda eked out a razor-thin victory. U.S. President Donald Trump, who faces his own uphill reelection battle in November, recently hosted Duda at the White House in an apparent bid to boost the Polish president’s standing. Duda, in turn, has built close ties with Trump since welcoming him to Warsaw in 2017.

However, relations between Washington and Warsaw are not just about a personal affinity between two men facing reelection. Rather, they are embedded in a larger transatlantic alliance system and rules-based international order of which the European Union (EU) and NATO are vital anchors. Both the EU and NATO are critical to Poland’s security and prosperity. As Polish-Americans who served in the State Department, we understand their importance to the national interest of Poland and the United States.

Regrettably, Trump has worked hard over the past three and a half years to create antagonistic relations with these organizations. During a visit to Brussels early in his presidency, he refused to endorse NATO’s Article 5, the guarantee of mutual defense, messaging that played right into the hands of Russia. He has also suggested that he would pull the United States out of NATO while bullying fellow NATO members over defense spending. He has referred to the EU as a “foe” and “worse than China” while disparaging the democratic leaders of Poland’s EU neighbors—most notably, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In his attacks on NATO and the EU, Trump has elevated Russia, a fact which should raise eyebrows in Poland and among Polish-American voters, who themselves will go to the polls in November. Trump has continued to describe both Russia and Putin as friends of the United States, sent humanitarian aid to Russia, and pushed for Moscow's inclusion in the Group of Seven summit. In Afghanistan, Trump apparently did not care about or act on intelligence that Russia was paying bounties for American troops. If Trump can’t stand up for America’s own soldiers, why would he stand up for Poland?

 The U.S.-Poland relationship needs a president who will work hard to restore and advance them.

Trump’s apparent adulation for Russian President Vladimir Putin brings us back to the centrality of the EU and NATO. Both institutions, working with in unison with the United States, are vital to confront an increasingly aggressive Russia. And it is this transatlantic community that desperately needs renewal under U.S. leadership. A Biden administration would do more than restore its centrality. It would be a far better custodian of transatlantic relations, leading the effort to reimagine them for the future.

This would mean working in lockstep with the EU and NATO on critical issues facing both Poland and the United States: climate change, Russian disinformation, and cyber threats, to name just a few. A President Biden, drawing on his decades of experience in building relationships across the Atlantic, would also put democratic values back at the center of the Polish-U.S. relationship.  

In making their decision this November, Polish-Americans should consider the long-term health of the transatlantic community of which both Poland and the United States are part. This is a community of shared values rooted in human rights and democracy. Trump has focused on transactional deal-making to the detriment of values, and simultaneously to the detriment of U.S.-Polish relations. 

Under communism, Poles suffered decades of artificially being cut off from the transatlantic community of democracies to which it rightfully belongs. After communism, Poles, with support from the United States and Polish-Americans, worked hard to become full-fledged members of the European Union and NATO. It was in fact Joe Biden who convinced skeptical fellow senators to vote for Poland’s NATO membership in the mid-1990s.

It is disturbing to see Trump’s policies weakening U.S. relations with institutions such as NATO and the EU, which serve as the cornerstone of Poland’s security and prosperity. The U.S.-Poland relationship needs a president who will work hard to restore and advance them.

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Mieczysław P. Boduszyński is a Pacific Council member, an Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Pomona College, and a former U.S. diplomat. 

Kamil Lungu graduated from Pomona College in 2020 with a B.A. in International Relations. He interned at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.