U.S. troops were deployed to Poland after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

U.S. president Donald John Trump‘s renewed call for NATO members to increase their defense expenditures to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), along with his Ukraine policy, has caused much concern among Western European leaders and Europhiles in the United States that the Trump administration is on the verge of abandoning Europe.

Well, at least one NATO member nation can rest assured that America won’t cast it aside: Poland, a former Eastern Bloc/Warsaw Pact member.

American troops in Poland?

The story has been covered by a variety of news sources, including The Irish Examiner in an article reshared on MSN last week titled “Poland’s president says US assures him it will not reduce its troop presence.” To wit:

“Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday that he has received US assurances that Washington will not reduce its troop presence in Poland and elsewhere along Nato’s [sic] eastern flank … ‘There are no concerns that the US would reduce the level of its presence in our country, that the US would in any way withdraw from its responsibility or co-responsibility for the security of this part of Europe,” Mr Duda told reporters in Warsaw. ‘On the contrary, I hope that, thanks to the efforts that President Trump is currently making, the war in Ukraine will end.’”

U.S. troops were deployed to Poland after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 (during the Obama presidency); these deployment numbers were increased by the Biden administration and extended to a long-term presence there after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Poland, America, and NATO

A consistent pattern is starting to form. Poland, like Baltic states Lithuania and Estonia, which publicly announced their willingness to meet Trump’s 5% defense spending threshold, shares a border with Russia. All three nations’ peoples know all too well what it’s like to suffer under a Muscovite jackboot, so it’s not surprising that they’re so willing and able to carry their share of the load and strengthen their ties with the Trump administration.

It’s also important to look at the individual interpersonal relationship variable. At the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) just outside of Washington, DC last week, not only did the American president openly praise his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, during the former’s keynote speech—wherein Trump referred to Duda as “a fantastic man, and a great friend of mine”—but the two heads of state met on the sidelines of CPAC prior to Trump’s speech. This makes Duda the first European leader to meet with Trump since the latter moved back into the Oval Office.

A White House spokesperson summed up the backstage meeting thusly: “Backstage at CPAC, President Trump met with President Andrzej Duda of Poland and reaffirmed our close alliance. President Trump also praised President [Andrzej Duda] for Poland’s commitment to increase their defense spending.”

Moreover, shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Polish defense minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz shunted aside criticism of Trump’s 5 percent defense spending proposal, saying the U.S. president “should not be criticized for setting a really ambitious target because otherwise there will be some countries that will continue to debate whether more spending is really needed.”

About the Author: Christian D. Orr

Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.

Image: DVIDS.