{"id":1096646,"date":"2026-07-18T10:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T10:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1096646\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T10:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T10:02:22","slug":"the-next-european-country-in-trumps-sights-for-a-maga-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1096646\/","title":{"rendered":"The next European country in Trump’s sights for a Maga makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> is suddenly looking very lonely on this side of the Atlantic. <\/p>\n

In April, Hungary turfed out the US President\u2019s major conservative ally in Europe. At the Nato summit earlier this month, Trump alienated even Giorgia Meloni<\/a>, Italy\u2019s ideologically aligned prime minister, in a spat over a photo. And now, after over a year of belittling and threatening America\u2019s European allies<\/a>, even traditionally close nations like Germany are openly criticising him \u2013 knowing that their publics largely dislike him.<\/p>\n

Yet Trump and Maga are not throwing in the towel when it comes to their declared project<\/a> of \u201crestoring Europe\u2019s civilisational self-confidence and Western identity\u201d through spreading their own conservative values. The US still has one major cheerleader on the continent.<\/p>\n

Poland\u2019s new president, Karol Nawrocki, is culturally aligned with the right-wing ideology promoted by Trump\u2019s White House. While he ran as an independent, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which was in power from 2015 to 2023, backs him.<\/p>\n

As President, Nawrocki does not run the government of Poland, which is led by the more liberal Donald Tusk and his Civic Coalition<\/a>. However, the President has sway over foreign and defence policy and holds important powers of blocking and shaping it through appointments and vetoes. He is trying to expand the currently limited powers of the presidency.<\/p>\n

In an echo of Trump\u2019s America First agenda, Nawrocki came to office under the slogan \u201cPoland First! The Polish People First!\u201d and shares a similarly restrictive outlook on immigration, civil rights and women\u2019s healthcare. <\/p>\n

The former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n supported similar white Christian nationalist politics and was a regular speaker at the Trump-aligned CPAC conference. JD Vance even travelled to Budapest to support him during this year\u2019s election campaign. His defeat marked a blow for Maga<\/a>, which had counted on him to spread its social and cultural values in Europe.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s ties to Poland\u2019s president<\/p>\n

Now Trump\u2019s support is helping to spearhead this far-right resurgence in Poland. Trump openly supported Nawrocki\u2019s election<\/a>, welcoming him to the Oval Office even before his win and so breaking a convention of not interfering in allied countries\u2019 democracies.<\/p>\n

Their connection has only deepened in recent months, with Nawrocki accepting a personal invitation from Trump to attend his 4 July birthday fight at the White House, a decision the head of Nawrocki\u2019s International Policy Bureau attributed to the countries\u2019 \u201cshared values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Poland'sNawrocki and his wife, Marta, during a mass at St John\u2019s Archcathedral in Warsaw, after he was sworn in as president (Photo: Sergei Gapon \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Nawrocki was the only sitting head of state to attend March\u2019s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas. He will speak at this weekend\u2019s inaugural CPAC Great Britain. The US has escalated its pro-conservative agenda in Europe, announcing that it would provide up to $5m (\u00a33.7m) to European civil society groups that \u201caddress national sovereignty, migration, censorship, and lawfare challenges in line with our shared political philosophy, law, and Western heritage\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nawrocki\u2019s movement is throwing its support behind the White House\u2019s agenda, trying to pivot the country to align with these views on sovereignty and migration in particular. Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, the leader of PiS, backed Poland joining Trump\u2019s so-called Board of Peace to rule Gaza, asking the government to pay the $1 billion fee, claiming Poland \u201cmust be on the best possible terms with the United States\u201d. The government refused, saying the country should not become a \u201cvassal\u201d of the US.<\/p>\n

Nawrocki\u2019s spokesman also criticised the speaker of Poland\u2019s parliament for refusing to support Trump\u2019s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and saying that he did not deserve the award.<\/p>\n

Splitting Polish society<\/p>\n

The influence of Maga is widening ideological splits in the Polish government and society, with Nawrocki choosing the US over Europe. Nawrocki has vetoed almost 40 bills passed by parliament, including one that would have granted Poland \u20ac44 billion in EU loans for defence spending. Nawrocki claimed Poland would be in the EU\u2019s debt and lose sovereignty as a result. He also claimed it would damage relations with Washington, as the loans were to be spent in the EU. Poland receives one of the highest levels of imports of US arms in the EU, including a $4.6 billion contract to purchase 32 F-35 fighter jets.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Nawrocki has thrown his support behind the US\u2019s National Security Strategy that called on European countries to spend money on their own defence. Poland spent 4.48 per cent of its GDP on defence in 2025, the highest in the EU. Nawrocki has said he deliberately withheld approval of Poland\u2019s updated National Security Strategy to revise it in line with the US approach.<\/p>\n

Tusk, in contrast, pushed back against the claims in the US document, writing in a message to his \u201cDear American friends\u201d that: \u201cEurope is your closest ally, not your problem. And we have common enemies. At least that\u2019s how it has been in the last 80 years. We need to stick to this; this is the only reasonable strategy of our common security. Unless something has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Poland'sPoland\u2019s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, has clashed repeatedly with the President (Photo: Wojtek Radwanski \/ AFP) <\/p>\n

Maga losing friends across the continent<\/p>\n

Maga\u2019s growing ties with Poland come at a time when other European right-wing leaders are becoming more critical of Trump, and the far right is falling in popularity in recent elections.<\/p>\n

In France, Jordan Bardella, of Marine Le Pen\u2019s Rassemblement National party, refused to speak at CPAC last year after former Trump aide Steve Bannon gave what looked like a Hitler salute on stage. In Germany, where only last year prominent Maga figures Elon Musk and Vance gave their backing to the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), its leaders have distanced themselves from the White House over the unpopular war in Iran and threats to invade Greenland.<\/p>\n

But perhaps Trump\u2019s behaviour towards the Italian prime minister<\/a> best encapsulates just how far the US\u2019s reputation has fallen in Europe. Meloni, who was the only European leader with a front-row seat at his inauguration and formerly dubbed the \u201cTrump whisperer\u201d, took the step of posting a video addressed to the President after he claimed she \u201cbegged\u201d him for a photo with him to improve her popularity ratings.<\/p>\n

Calling Trump\u2019s claim \u201ccompletely made up\u201d, Meloni said on Instagram: \u201cI am stunned that he behaves this way towards allies.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNeither I nor Italy ever beg,\u201d she said: \u201cMy popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Trump\u2019s allies falling away, Poland will only become a more vital pillar in Maga\u2019s mission to \u201ccultivate resistance\u201d to what it terms Europe\u2019s \u201ccivilisational erasure\u201d<\/a>. Whether Poland joins that mission remains to be seen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump is suddenly looking very lonely on this side of the Atlantic. In April, Hungary turfed out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1096647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[32,2000,299,5187,36173,770,49,2862],"class_list":["post-1096646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-donald-trump","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-maga","tag-poland","tag-united-states","tag-us-politics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116940411377724804","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1096647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}