Donald just sparked another transatlantic scandal, but this time it was Tusk, not Trump. The Polish Prime Minister told the Financial Times that there are questions about the US’ loyalty to NATO in an insinuation that Trump would have the US stand aside in the political fantasy that Russia invaded the bloc. He gaslit that he’s not questioning Article 5 even though he is and warned that it might be tested in months. Tusk then concluded by declaring that his “obsession” is to “reintegrate Europe” for a “common defence”.
The context concerns Trump’s furious attacks against NATO after it refused to help the US open Hormuz and some members refusing to grant it access, basing, and overflight rights during the Third Gulf War too. Politico reported last week that “Trump weighs consequences for NATO allies on ‘naughty’ list”, but they predicted that Poland would be a beneficiary since it’s in his team’s good graces for its high defense spending and footing almost all the bill for hosting US troops. Here are some background briefings:
* 17 March 2026: “NATO Is In A Dilemma Over Whether To Join Trump’s Proposed Hormuz Naval Coalition”
* 1 April 2026: “Trump Might Finally Force NATO To Radically Reform”
* 2 April 2026: “What Might Transatlantic Security Look Like If The US Leaves NATO?”
* 20 April 2026: “The US Demanded That The Europeans Accelerate Their Transition To ‘NATO 3.0’”
* 22 April 2026: “Kellogg’s Proposed NATO Replacement Isn’t All That Realistic”
US Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose responded by reaffirming the US’ commitment to Article 5 and to Poland specifically. This paralleled the Deputy Head of the Presidential Chancellery, which represents Tusk’s conservative rival President Karol Nawrocki, declaring that only the US has the potential to support Poland in the scenario of war with Russia. Former head of the National Security Bureau Slawomir Cenckiewicz, who just ended his term last week, then lambasted Tusk during a TV interview.
In his words, “I couldn’t say this as sharply as I want to speak starting today. A characteristic feature of Tusk’s government is blunt anti-Atlanticism and anti-Americanism. They have a fixation on the USA and are unable to separate it from their aversion to the President of the United States.” His successor, Andrzej Kowalsi, also warned in March that “removing the American element is absolute strategic suicide for Poland.” Under Tusk, Polish-US ties went from promising to poor, which these briefings detail:
* 19 February 2025: “Poland Is Once Again Poised To Become The US’ Top Partner In Europe”
* 2 October 2025: “September 2025 Was The Most Eventful Month For Poland Since The End Of Communism”
* 7 December 2025: “Poland Will Play A Central Role In Advancing The US’ National Security Strategy In Europe”
* 3 March 2026: “Interpreting Two Recent Polls About Poles’ Declining Faith In The US’ Reliability”
* 23 April 2026: “What Are The Implications Of The US Backing Israel In Its Two Latest Disputes With Poland?”
Tusk’s Europhilia, Trump’s pragmatic approach to Poland’s millennium-long Russian rival along with his attacks against NATO, and recent US diplomatic faux pas combined to create problems in bilateral ties. Rose recently assessed that Tusk ally Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, the Sejm Speaker, is hellbent on “damag[ing] U.S.-Poland ties” by regularly insulting Trump. This aligns with Cenckiewicz’s speculation of a plot by Tusk and his team. Top Polish expert Slawomir Debski tacitly lent credence to this hypothesis too.
Try as Nawrocki and his pro-US team might, it’s possible that they’ll fail to stop Tusk and his pro-EU team from ruining Polish-US ties, which would then make Poland more subordinate to the Franco–German Entente (conservative leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski thinks Tusk is a “German agent”) than to the US. Poland’s role among the Great Powers would then shift from a pro-US wedge between the EU and Russia to a multiplier of Franco-German power that would then spike the risk of a future EU invasion of Russia.
