FOREIGN POLICY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Polish officials are bragging: On President Trump’s way to the Group of 20 summit this week, he is coming to Poland first, choosing it over more powerful American allies like Germany, France or Britain.
‘We have a new success, Trump’s visit,’ Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the governing party and Poland’s true power broker, said in a speech last week. Mr. Trump’s visit, he said, is causing other European countries to ‘envy’ Poland.
That remains to be seen. Mr. Trump’s last visit to Europe in May unnerved American allies, causing some leaders to rethink the United States’ relationship with the Continent. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has already said that she expects difficult talks with Mr. Trump when he arrives in Hamburg on Friday for the G-20 economic summit meeting.
For Mr. Trump, the stop in Poland on Thursday is something of an appetizer before the main course, a visit to a friendly right-wing, populist government with a kindred approach on any number of key issues, from immigration to global warming and coal mining.”
-Rick Lyman, “Europe Will Be Watching Trump’s Visit to a Right-Tilting Poland,” The New York Times online, July 5, 2017