Trump asked Polish President Nawrocki to replace PM Tusk in Ukraine meeting

WARSAW – US President Donald Trump at the last minute requested that Maga-allied Polish President Karol Nawrocki join the Ukraine teleconference with European leaders on Aug 13, according to centrist Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Mr Nawrocki’s bitter political rival who had been expected to attend.

Mr Nawrocki, a conservative nationalist and euro sceptic, is an ally of Mr Trump’s right-wing populist Maga political movement and visited the White House during Poland’s presidential election campaign in 2025.

He defeated the candidate of Mr Tusk’s pro-European, centrist party in June.

“Just before midnight yesterday we received information, alongside our European partners, that the American side would prefer that Poland was represented by the President in contacts with President Trump,” Mr Tusk told a news conference.

The White House did not comment on whether the US requested that Mr Nawrocki rather than Mr Tusk take part in the call.

A Polish government spokesperson said on Aug 12 that Mr Tusk, a former head of the European Council of leaders, would attend

the call with Mr Trump.

But Mr Nawrocki’s foreign policy adviser Marcin Przydacz told reporters he had “no information that Prime Minister Donald Tusk had previously planned to participate”.

He said Mr Tusk’s team showed it did not have good contacts with the Trump administration because it was under the impression Mr Tusk would take part.

Government spokesman Adam Szlapka said Mr Tusk was representing Poland in two calls on Aug 13 with European leaders but not Mr Trump.

Mr Przydacz said the offices of the President and Prime Minister would exchange information about the meetings.

European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Mr Trump ahead of

the US President’s summit

with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug 15, stressing the need to protect Kyiv’s interests.

Mr Krzysztof Izdebski, policy director at the Stefan Batory Foundation, said having two political opponents represent Poland created a risk of mixed messages.

“This shows that, even in foreign policy, in such a key issue of security, we are simply hostage to internal politics and a certain competition between various state bodies,” he said.

He said this would undermine Poland’s effort to present itself as a modern country working with leading nations on international political issues.

Mr Nawrocki and Polish party PiS are strong supporters of Ukraine in its war with invading Russian forces, as is Mr Tusk and his government, but they differ on issues such as abortion, family values and the rule of law.

Mr Tusk said that he respected the US request to keep contacts at the presidential level, but this should not be used to “play Poles against each other”. REUTERS