Trump appeals for Polish Americans’ votes in interview with Polish TV station

Donald Trump has urged Polish Americans to vote for him in next month’s US presidential election in an interview with a right-wing Polish TV station.

He claims that no American president has ever done more for the Polish people than he did during his previous term in office and accused his rival, Kamala Harris, and her Democratic Party of “not liking the Polish people”.

“I hope the Polish people can get out and vote for somebody that shares their values about things [like] religion and our lives and our work and work ethic,” Trump told TV Republika in an interview on Tuesday, the day after New York’s annual Pulaski Parade held by Polish Americans.

“I should get most of the Polish vote. I hope I get all of it,” he added.

There are almost 9 million self-declared Polish Americans in the US, representing around 2.7% of the country’s population. Particularly large numbers of them are located in states seen as key battlegrounds in this year’s presidential elections, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

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Trump rejected Harris’s claim at last month’s presidential debate that he would abandon Ukraine in its war with Russia, which would in turn threaten Poland.

“Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favour and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch,” Harris said to Trump.

Asked about this yesterday by Republika, Trump responded that, “as you know, she’s a liar”. He went on to say that “there’s nobody that’s ever done more for the Polish people than I have…There’s no president that’s been better to the Polish people, and that includes with [regard to] Russia”.

“[My] relationship with Polish people has just been extraordinary,” continued the Republican candidate. “I hope they get out to vote for me because the other side [the Democrats] does not like the Polish people. They don’t like religion. They don’t like anything.”

During Trump’s term in office, he forged a close relationship with Poland’s then national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government and PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda.

However, it was only subsequently under Joe Biden that the US announced plans for a permanent military base in Poland, something Warsaw had long lobbied for.

During the interview with Republika, Trump praised Duda, calling him “a very good man, great guy, a friend of mine”. He said Duda was “right” to call for NATO countries to increase defence spending to at least 3%, up from the current minimum target of 2%.

On a visit to the US last month, Duda urged Polish Americans to vote in the presidential election, though did not endorse any candidate. There had initially been plans for Trump to appear at the event alongside the Polish president, but those were cancelled, reportedly due to security concerns.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland also increasingly sought energy cooperation with the US as it looked to end reliance on supplies from Russia.

Speaking to Republika yesterday, Trump stressed that his focus on increasing energy resource extraction is another of his policies “that will help the Polish people”.

“We have to drill, baby, drill,” he said. “We’re going to drill for oil. We’re going to cut people’s energy prices within a 12-month period from January 20th by half, 50%.”

Main image credit: RepublikaTV / x.com

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.