Trump Looks Forward To Warm Reception In Poland But What About the Rest Of Europe?

President Donald Trump will be making his second trip to Europe this week. His first stop in Poland will be, for him, likely a friendly one.

He has chosen Poland, over more powerful United States allies such as Germany, France, and Britain, as his first stop on his way to the G-20 summit.

Poland leans the same way as Trump does when it comes to issues such as climate change, coal mining and immigration.

Much like Trump, Polish president Andrzej Duda and the leaders of the Law and Justice Party, which took control of Poland in 2015, have “co-opted the constitutional tribunal,” according to The New York Times, and “turning it from a check on the constitutionality of new laws to a rubber stamp for the government.”

The Law and Justice Party of Poland has also removed “independent oversight of the secret services” and put in a stalwart member of their own party to act as chief prosecutor.

They have also taken over publicly owned media and transformed it into “pro-government mouthpieces,” along with other pro-authoritarian leaning changes they’ve made, The New York Times reports.

From the reports of the changes in government and the similarities between Trump’s and the Polish president’s agenda, it is no wonder that they are welcoming him with open arms.

The head of the Law and Justice Party in Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski made a statement last week about how Trump’s visit to their country will be a “huge success.” He went on to say that other European countries would now “envy” Poland for having Trump as a visitor.

That is highly unlikely, no matter what Kaczynski may believe. Trump’s visit to Europe in May did not go smoothly with most of the other European leaders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s most influential leader and some say now the “leader of the free world,” a title that used to belong to the President of the United States, has had major disagreements with Trump over his views on global warming, NATO, and trade issues.

After Trump’s visit in May, Merkel said that she no longer believed that the United States would back Europe as true allies saying, “The times that we could fully rely on others — are somewhat over,” adding that it was what she “had experienced over the past few days.”

The days she was referring to were the NATO summit in Brussels and the G-7 meeting in Italy, in which Trump publicly declined to endorse NATO’s doctrine of domestic defense as well as its position on global trade, Russian aggression, and fighting climate change.

She stressed the loss of trans-Atlantic relations now but did not mention Trump by name.

In alliance with France, Italy and the other 24 countries that now make up the 27 nations of the European Union (with Great Britain having recently voted to leave the Union), are now going to “fight for our future, on our own, for our destiny as Europeans,” according to Merkel.

In June when Trump announced that the United States was pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, new French President Emmanuel Macron, delivered a joint statement between France, Italy, and Germany and ended it in his own way.

He gave a three-minute speech in English. He posted the speech to his own Twitter account which can be heard below, and his message to Trump came out loud and clear.

Statement on the US' withdrawal from the Paris climate agreements. #parisagreementhttps://t.co/T4XOjWZW0Q

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 1, 2017

Merkel is predicting “very difficult” talks with Trump once again, in just his second visit to Europe. She has urged other European nations to have more conflicting relationships with the United States. Merkel has also said on more than one occasion that the United States can no longer be seen as reliable “allies.”

Trump will receive a warm welcome in Poland as he agrees politically with the Polish leaders and to make sure he gets the welcome that he desires, Newsweek reports that “supportive crowds will be bused in to cheer for him” upon his arrival.

According to Newsweek, Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said that Poland’s government was being attacked by “liberals, post-communists, lefties, and genderists.” He then said that, “Trump was “a man who is changing the shape of the world’s political scene.”

Trump may be “changing the world’s political scene,” but it seems that Poland and perhaps, Russia, are the only ones that agree with the way he is doing it.

It is pretty clear that while Trump may enjoy his time in Poland with like-minded politicians, the rest of his trip may not be quite as pleasant.

[Featured Image by Zach Gibson/Getty Images]