American forces will stay in Poland, President Donald Trump said on September 3 as he hosted Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the White House, adding that Washington was open to sending more if requested.

The pledge to keep US boots on the ground was no longer obvious under Trump, who has said time and again Washington might revise its military presence in Europe. This had Poland, a longtime and unconditional ally of the US, on edge.

Poland is the only EU country bordering Russia, Moscow’s ally Belarus, and Ukraine fighting Russian aggression.

About 8,000 US soldiers are currently stationed in Poland. “We’ll put more there if they want. They’ll be staying in Poland,” Trump told reporters before the media left the Oval Office.

The visit was Nawrocki’s first foreign trip since his narrow June election win, secured with backing from the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party and Trump’s endorsement. 

The two leaders focused on regional security and the US military presence in Central and Eastern Europe. Trump praised Poland’s defence spending, which stands at 4.7% of GDP in 2025, the highest level in Nato.

Nawrocki said Poland’s cooperation with the United States was vital. “This is the first time in Polish history that the Poles are happy that we have foreign soldiers in Poland,” he joked. “With American soldiers on Polish soil, we are secure.”

After the talks at the White House, Nawrocki confirmed that discussions had also covered a permanent US base in Poland as well as an increased American troop presence. 

The Polish president said the details would soon be worked out between US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and the head of his National Security Bureau, Sławomir Cenckiewicz. 

Nawrocki further received an invitation to the next G20 summit in the United States. Poland has been seeking entry into the group, after data showed recently the country is now a billion-dollar economy. 

Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski raised the same issue a day earlier with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami.

Poland hopes the White House visit will consolidate ties with Washington, strengthen regional defence, and bring further support for Ukraine. 

Before the trip to Washington, Nawrocki said he intended to underline to Trump that “Russia and its leader [President Vladimir Putin] must not be trusted.” Nawrocki said he delivered that exact message to Trump at a closed meeting of delegations. 

Otherwise, however, next to nothing on Russia and its war in Ukraine transpired from the meeting. Trump is joining European leaders' "coalition of the willing" meeting on September 4 to offer them, perhaps, more on the issue after talks with Nawrocki.

The White House meeting was not the first contact between the two leaders. Trump hosted Nawrocki during the Polish election campaign, they have spoken twice by phone since he took office, and Nawrocki joined a video call of European leaders convened by the US president before his Alaska summit with Putin.

The government, which is fiercely opposed to Nawrocki in domestic politics, praised the president.

“President Trump declared that the United States did not intend and does not plan in the future to withdraw American troops from Poland. These are important words that confirm the timeless nature of our alliance,” Tusk wrote on X in the wake of Nawrocki’s visit, stopping short of addressing the Polish president directly.

Relations between Nawrocki and government are tense. Days before the trip, a confidential note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs outlining its recommendations for Nawrocki’s White House visit was leaked to the press. The ministry instructed him not to promise future American arms purchases, not to back a US company for a second nuclear power plant, and not to raise issues such as a digital tax.

Presidential aides dismissed the note as meaningless, describing it as a “joke” and a “mistake”. 

The leak laid bare a wider struggle over foreign policy, with both the presidency and government claiming authority over Warsaw’s approach to Washington. Buoyed Nawrocki’s apparently flawless debut on the international stage, the Nawrocki camp now holds an advantage. 

That might pay off in the run-up to the general election in 2027 that PiS hopes to sweep.