2024-04-18 19:37:03
The Republican tycoon, in the unusual role of a former president running again for the top job, has turned to confidants both at home and abroad to derail some of Mr. Biden’s top foreign policy priorities.
For months, Trump’s supporters have blocked billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, which the president has vowed to defend, and Trump has argued that Biden’s “weaknesses” have led Iran to launch a major attack on Israel.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who has described the European Union as an “imaginary community from which we don’t benefit much,” met with the White House candidate at his Trump Tower in Manhattan on Wednesday.
“He’s done a fantastic job, he’s a friend of mine and we’ve had four great years together,” meaning when they were both presidents at the same time, Trump said while standing next to Duda, according to a video posted on Trump’s Truth Social account. “.
“We may have to do it again,” he said.
Trump’s campaign team said the meeting discussed Duda’s proposal for NATO countries to increase defense spending from 2 to 3 percent of GDP.
Trump has often criticized NATO, saying its members are not paying what he calls their fair share.
“They also discussed the Russia-Ukraine war, the conflict in the Middle East and many other topics related to ensuring world peace,” Trump’s team said in a statement.
Duda and Trump were close allies during Trump’s previous 77-year presidency, and Poland prioritized relations with the United States, sometimes at the expense of its ties with the EU.
Conservative A. Duda even proposed to build the US military base “Fort Trump” on the territory of Poland.
And after Mr. Trump falsely claimed that he doubted his defeat in the 2020 elections, A. Duda delayed more than a month to congratulate Mr. Biden on his victory in the presidential election.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, the former prime minister who once denounced Trump as a “protectionist, xenophobe, misogynist,” recently went to the Republican’s home in Mar-a-Lage to have lunch with him and advocate for aid to Ukraine.
Mr Cameron was an unusually traditional character who came to meet Mr Trump. In March, Trump hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a staunch nationalist who has long been a stickler for the European Union on issues important to Americans such as migration.
Speaking on CNBC afterward, Trump called Orbán a “tough man” and praised him for his “amazing statement” that “we’re going to solve the world’s problems if Donald Trump comes back.”
2024-04-18 19:37:03