WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump offered only brief comment on NATO warplanes defending Poland from Russian drones overnight in an escalation that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told his country brought “us all closer to open conflict, closer than ever since World War II” and alarmed leaders across Europe and in Washington.
It was the first time in the alliance’s history that “NATO aircrafts have engaged potential threats in Allied Space,” Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, said Wednesday.
“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The administration had no scheduled formal public briefings at the White House, Pentagon or State Department and offered little else on Trump’s reaction to the seven-hour incursion into Polish territory. The U.S. president had no public events scheduled for Wednesday, and his public comments later in the day were addressing the death of top ally Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed in Utah.
The flight of the drones Tuesday night into Wednesday morning sent the NATO alliance into action to defend a treaty member state’s airspace and triggered Article 4 discussions of a possible collective response to the incursion amid the war in bordering Ukraine. Article 4 is a rarely invoked aspect of the treaty and involves discussing NATO’s core Article 5 collective security guarantee that states that “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.”
The only time Article 5 has been invoked was in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, 24 years ago on Thursday.
In a brief post of his own, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker — who served briefly as acting attorney general during Trump’s first term — wrote, “We stand by our [NATO] Allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister, said Wednesday that while a “full assessment of the incident is ongoing,” it was clear “that the violation last night is not an isolated incident.” He said from Brussels that Polish, Dutch, Italian and German forces responded to “the defence of NATO territory.”
It was not immediately clear if the U.S. military participated in the action. There are roughly 10,000 U.S. troops based in Poland, and during a White House meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki last week, Trump floated sending “more there if they want.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that “lost their course” because they were jammed. It said it wanted to hold rare consultations with Poland and that its overnight strikes targeted Ukraine’s military-industrial complex in the western regions of the country — which border Poland — with no planned targets on Polish territory.
Trump and Nawrocki spoke Wednesday, the Polish president wrote on X, noting the conversation ”confirmed the unity of our alliance.” There was no immediate readout of the call provided by the Trump administration.
“I’m a historian and this is the first time in Polish history in the 20th century and the 21st century that the Poles are happy that we have foreign soldiers in Poland,” Nawrocki said in the Oval Office last week. The Polish president is a historian, former museum director and former director of an institution that investigates the crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Russian regimes during the 20th century. “So the American soldiers are part of our society nowadays. We have almost 10,000 soldiers, and this is the signal to the world and also to the Russian Federation that we are together.”
NATO leaders in France, Britain, Germany, Canada and other treaty member nations condemned the attack and warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against further escalation. The war in Ukraine has continued to rage as Trump and European leaders have struggled to secure progress in peace talks.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy wrote on Wednesday he had spoken with Tusk, the Polish prime minister, as well as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Rutte, the NATO secretary general.
“We all equally understand that this is a completely different level of escalation from Russia. There must be an appropriate response,” Zelenskyy said. “I offered Poland our assistance, training, and expertise in shooting down Russian drones, particularly” Iranian drones that he said were among the Russia-deployed drones that crossed into Poland.
Zelenskyy, leading his country through its third year of full-scale war with Russian invaders, also renewed his call for “a joint air defense system and create an effective air shield over Europe.” He called the drone flights “deliberate.”
In Washington, senior lawmakers from both parties expressed outrage and concern at the overnight incursion. Democrats blamed Trump for decisions they said enabled Putin’s apparent brazenness, with even Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst telling CNN, “Putin is playing him right now, and I think the president understands that.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday there is “intensified interest” in imposing new sanctions on Russia, according to Politico. He described recent attacks on Kyiv and the drone flights into Polish airspace as “provocative act” and “an attempt to test the U.S. and our NATO allies.”
“I fear Donald Trump’s anemic weakness against Putin and other strongmen has only pushed the world closer to the brink of chaos and even war,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.
Top Trump ally and leading Republican hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said “Russian drones entering NATO airspace in Poland is beyond unacceptable.” He added he believes a combination of sanctions and “tariffs on countries that buy cheap Russian oil” would help rein in Russia. The oil-purchasing nations, Graham said, are “financially supporting Putin’s barbaric invasion.”
“Mr. President, Congress is with you,” Graham wrote. “We stand ready to pass legislation authorizing bone crushing new sanctions and tariffs that can be deployed at your discretion. Our goal is to empower you as you deal with this mounting threat. Our goal is to empower you as you deal with this mounting threat.”
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who co-sponsored sanctions legislation with Graham, called for prompt U.S. support for NATO allies, increased military aid to Ukraine and the passage of the sanctions bill.
“Trump’s ham-handed attempt at diplomacy has only appeased & emboldened Putin,” Blumenthal wrote. “NATO, led by the US, should quickly deliver arms & equipment to sustain Ukraine as it fights for its freedom.”
Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican critic of Trump on his Russia and Ukraine policies, wrote that the Trump administration’s “policy towards Russia is weak and vacillating, and Putin is taking advantage of it.”
“The president is a shrewd negotiator, but on his face, it looks like we’re losing this negotiation,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said.
The U.S. president last month held a summit with Putin in Alaska and then met with Zelenskyy and key European allies about finding a pathway to end the war — something that Trump vowed to get done quickly during his 2024 White House campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.