FOREIGN DIGNITARIES/MILITARY/POLAND/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump welcomed Poland’s nationalist president to the White House on Wednesday [6-12-19] with an elaborate show of support, promising more American troops, defending Warsaw’s record on democracy and staging a rare and showy F-35 jet flyover to mark their friendship. In his latest embrace of Europe’s nationalist surge, Mr. Trump stood side by side with President Andrzej Duda and their wives on the South Lawn of the White House staring into the sky and waving as the Marine warplane roared overhead, buzzed around the Washington Monument and then headed back for a second pass. A jet flyover above the White House is highly unusual, but Mr. Trump has agitated without success to hold a military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue and clearly relished showing off the state-of-the-art aircraft that Poland has agreed to buy. The flyover, however, startled many in the streets of Washington who did not know it was coming and, in some cases, pointed to the sky with worried looks or even started running.”
–Peter Baker, “Trump Embraces Poland’s President and Promises Him More U.S. Troops,” The New York Times online, June 12, 2019