For such an honor, Trump readily explained that the purpose of his Polish embrace was to spite both Germany and Russia. He confirmed the planned removal of U.S. troops from German soil, which he announced last week, and said some of those units would be going to Poland.

“We’re going to be reducing our forces in Germany. Some will be coming home and some will be going to other places, but Poland would be one of those other places,” said Trump at a press briefing at the White House with Duda.

He said that would send “a very strong signal to Russia”.

The Kremlin responded that such a move would violate the 1997 Russia-NATO Founding Act. Moscow has previously protested deployment of U.S. troops in Poland on a rotational basis. Now the American forces seem to be setting up permanent bases.

Trump repeated his accusation that Germany was “delinquent” in its military spending on the NATO alliance.

“Poland is one of the few countries that are fulfilling their obligations under NATO, in particular their monetary obligations,” said Trump. “And they asked us if we would send some additional troops. They’re going to pay for that. They’ll be paying for the sending of additional troops, and we’’ll probably be moving them from Germany to Poland. We’re going to be reducing Germany very substantially.”

The American president was referring to an arbitrary spending target of 2 per cent of national economy for NATO members. Germany allocates about 1.3 per cent, although it has dramatically increased its military spending over the past two years. However, that is still not enough for Trump who has repeatedly chided Berlin for seeking protection from the U.S. while allegedly not paying its dues.

Poland is one of eight NATO members in the 30-nation military alliance that does meet the 2 per cent spending target, although in absolute monetary terms its annual military budget is only about a quarter of Germany’s ($50 billion).

Trump is also known to have a sour relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her refusal in May to attend a proposed G7 summit in Washington was seen as a snub to Trump. Tellingly, his surprise move to pull U.S. troops out of Germany then followed that spat.

The initial White House report to withdraw some 9,5000 American soldiers stationed in Germany out of a total of 35,000 blindsided politicians in Berlin. The Pentagon also seemed to not have been consulted by Trump. The hasty move smacked of vindictiveness by Trump, intent on insulting the Germans. Certainly, the horrified reaction from the Berlin establishment showed that Trump had hit where it hurts.

Hosting the Polish president at the White House this week and moving ahead with the proposed U.S. troop relocation is further rubbing Germany’s nose by Trump. The two leaders signed a “defense cooperation agreement”.

“Today we are entering another stage, namely there is a possibility of further increase in American troops in our country,” Duda said.

It’s not clear exactly how many U.S. forces are heading to Poland. Reports indicate it could be about 2,000 troops as well as up to 30 F-16 fighter jets. That’s still a lot less than the number Trump is planning to pull out of Germany. Nevertheless, it is hugely symbolic.

Germany was traditionally the European base for U.S. forces since the end of World War Two. Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member, then joined the U.S.-led alliance in 1999 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Twenty years later, it is set to host U.S. troops in permanent bases. Trump’s cozying up to Warsaw is therefore grooming Poland as the new European base for American forces. (Whether the Pentagon buys into that in the long-term is another question.)

The Law and Justice (PiS) government in Poland together with President Duda have long appealed to Washington to station U.S. troops in their country. That appeal fits their intensely Russophobic narrative accusing Russia of “aggression”. Duda and PiS have set about rewriting the history of World War Two in which Nazi Germany is equated with the Soviet Union. The defeat of the Nazi Reich by the Red Army and liberation of Poland and other nations is furiously denied by the Warsaw government.

Trump has very much played into that discreditable narrative. In a speech delivered in Warsaw in July, 2017, Trump conflated Nazi occupation with claims of the Soviet Union’s “brutal campaign to demolish freedom”.

By sending U.S. troops and warplanes to bases in Poland which borders Russia’s territory of Kaliningrad, Trump is indulging Warsaw’s persecution complex about alleged Russian aggression. Last month, Poland officially declared Russia as its “biggest security threat”.

The added rationale for Trump’s troop maneuver appears to be his umbrage over Germany buying much of its energy supply from Russia instead of from the U.S. He pointedly linked the relocation of American troops from Germany to Poland with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

Trump said: “It sends a very strong signal to Russia, but I think a stronger signal sent to Russia is the fact that Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars to purchase energy from Russia through the pipeline.”

However, he added: “With all that being said, we expect to get along with Russia. We expect to get along with everybody.”

The Kremlin warned earlier this month against additional U.S. forces going to Poland. “Whatever military potentially ends up threatening us from Polish territory, the relevant Russian government structures will take comprehensive measures in response,” said deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov.

Trump is foolishly toying with strategic interests for short-term tactical gains and petty vanity. He is pandering to Polish reactionary politics to offend both Germany and Russia. But this president doesn’t have a clue about the monster of reactionary forces in Poland that he is fomenting. His instinctive money-grubbing rush for profit and petty score-settling is massively destabilizing European security. Yet, as he idiotically says, “we expect to get along with everybody”.

Now, that is really taking the…

When Poland’s new President Andrzej Duda was received in Brussels this week there was a palpable sense of strained relations with the 28-member EU bloc. The EU announced that it was going ahead with a formal inquiry into fresh laws enacted earlier this month by the ruling Justice and Law (PiS) party. The party came to power in Polish elections last October on a platform of anti-EU rhetoric and socially conservative policies, propelled by Poland’s largely Catholic electorate.

The new Polish laws in question allow Duda’s government to sack or appoint senior managers of the country’s publicly owned media networks and also to weaken the constitutional court. The latter is seen as a move towards giving the ruling party more power to enact its brand of conservative policies. The EU formal probe into Poland’s new laws will determine if they contravene the bloc’s «democratic standards». More Brussels-Warsaw confrontation is on the way.

As Deutsche Welle commented: «Many EU member states see the changes in Poland as reflecting a return to nationalist, anti-EU sentiment in the bloc’s new eastern European members».

Duda’s Justice and Law party is firmly against joining the Euro single currency; and it wants more autonomy for Warsaw to set its own economic policies, such as raising taxes on bank assets. Poland is ditching the pro-EU stance that was the hallmark of previous Warsaw governments ever since the country joined the bloc in 2004. That’s a big concern for Brussels.

The new Warsaw administration is also averse to the influx of immigrants from outside Europe. Justice and Law party leader Jarosław Kaczyński has infuriated liberal sensibilities in Brussels with testy anti-immigrant statements. He has said, according to a Reuters report, that Muslim refugees would not be welcome because they «threaten Poland’s Catholic way of life».

Such anti-immigrant views have rankled the German government of Angela Merkel. Berlin was formerly close to Warsaw as an EU partner. But the harder Polish line towards refugee-intake is causing consternation in Berlin, partly because it means Germany being more burdened with its erstwhile open-door policy.

Moreover, Poland’s strident anti-immigrant policy serves to embolden other central and eastern European member states in their reluctance to take in refugees. Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Slovenia are vexed that they are feeling the brunt from the more than one million refugees to have entered the EU this past year alone, largely from the conflict zones of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Representing one of the largest EU countries, Poland’s Justice and Law government adds more political gravitas to the anti-immigrant ranks.

But the EU problems stirred up by Warsaw are bigger than the narrow issue of migration. In challenging Brussels’ centralized economic policies and laws, in favor of more nationalist-oriented interests, Warsaw is piling on more Eurosceptic pressure to challenge the entire EU project. Eurosceptic parties, both on the political right and left, are soaring across Europe, from Britain to Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden on top of the fractious eastern EU members.

Poland and other eastern European countries pose an acute threat to the Brussels establishment and aligned governments in Paris and Berlin. Because these dissident states are more militant in pursuing their national interests – and in particular on the issue of non-EU migrants. Both European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk issued dire warnings in the past week that if free movement is undermined by member states closing borders then the whole EU structure is in danger of collapsing.

Added to this challenge is that the Polish Justice and Law government is now openly flouting EU central rule of law with its new media and judicial legislation. This bold dissent from Brussels authority by Warsaw will no doubt galvanize other like-minded European parties to follow suit in asserting their national interests against centralized edicts from the European Commission.

From Russia’s point of view, it is arguable that instability, uncertainty and incoherence within the EU might be construed as an advantage for Moscow.

For one thing, such instability undermines the EU’s blanket adoption of US-led economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis. Several EU countries have already expressed disquiet over the sanctions policy on account of the damage to their own economies from the severance of business ties with Russia. The more fractious the bloc becomes over internal matters the less cohesive it is on implementing anti-Russian sanctions.

So, on one hand, from a Russian perspective, the rise of Eurosceptic parties is to be welcomed.

However, Poland is a case of double trouble. This is because the coming to power of the Justice and Law party will mean a more aggressive NATO policy in Eastern Europe towards Russia.

Poland has shown itself to be fervently pro-NATO since the end of the Cold War. And anti-Soviet sentiments are of course a big axe to grind within Poland even before the new ultra-nationalist government.

But the Justice and Law party takes NATO cheerleading to new heights, as well as the mantra of alleged Russian aggression to Europe.

While President Duda was in Brussels this week it was significant that he also called at the NATO headquarters in the Belgian capital, greeted by the military alliance’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.

Duda made an explicit appeal to NATO for more troops, weapons and «infrastructure» to be permanently based on Polish soil.

The Polish president said at a joint press conference: «Today, everything points to the need to have substantial presence of both infrastructure and military units on the ground in central European countries, as well as a well worked-out system for these units and defense should there be any act of [Russian] aggression… That means increasing presence in central-eastern Europe, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization… I would want it to be permanent to the greatest extent possible».

Stoltenberg gave a receptive response to what would constitute a serious escalation of NATO firepower pointed at Russia.

«NATO now has a persistent military presence in the region, of which Poland is part. And I trust that after the Warsaw summit [set to take place in July] we would see more NATO in Poland than ever before», added Stoltenberg.

Getting back to Poland’s internal trouble for the EU, the Financial Times this week reported in brief but significant words: «The [new Polish] media and judicial measures have sparked criticism from national leaders in Europe and prompted calls for the Obama administration to intervene».

We thus plausibly surmise the following: the EU establishment in Brussels and its main national supporter in Berlin are deeply concerned by Poland’s anti-European administration and how it is fueling more dissent within the bloc. Warsaw is adding unbearable pressure on an already acutely pressurized EU. But this Warsaw government is also rabidly pro-NATO and anti-Russian. Therein lies a release valve for Brussels.

What the Financial Times clip above reveals is that the EU establishment is calling on the Obama administration to mediate with its troublesome surrogate in Warsaw. That inevitably means that President Duda’s request will be met by the Americans for more NATO troops, tanks, missiles and warplanes to be permanently stationed in Poland and other pro-NATO states in the Baltic, Romania and Bulgaria. That escalation entails a dramatically greater aggressive posture towards Russia on NATO’s eastern flank.

In exchange, Brussels seems to be betting on NATO favors taking the anti-EU sting out of Warsaw.

In other words, the EU’s problem with an uppity Poland is being solved by indulging Warsaw through NATO. But in trying to solve its internal problems, as manifest in Poland, the EU is shifting the trouble on to its external relations with Russia. 

On Jan. 7, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a law empowering the government to directly appoint the heads of public broadcasting companies. The new law has caused an uproar in Europe. European Parliament President Martin Schulz accused the Polish government of the «dangerous Putinization of European politics».

«The government in Warsaw sees its election victory as a mandate to subjugate the welfare of the state to the will of the winning party», said Martin Schulz in an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, «This is managed democracy à la Putin…» Speaking of the upcoming plenary session of the European Parliament regarding the current situation in Poland, which is scheduled for Jan. 19, Schultz emphasized that now the entire democratic political spectrum «from left to right can say for sure that such a policy is in conflict with basic European values».

Specifically, the provisions of the new Polish law that have provoked the outrage of European politicians are the ones that make it possible to dismiss the members of the management and supervisory boards of Polish Public Television (TVP), and Polish Radio (Polskie Radio) before their contracts have expired and which also render the hiring for those positions non-competitive (from now on members of the management and supervisory boards will be appointed by Poland’s treasury minister). Brussels is guessing that the Law and Justice Party has yet more extensive reforms in mind, and that the establishment of rigid state control over television and radio is just the beginning.

In this instance, Schulz’s crack about the «Putinization of Poland» can be safely ignored – that Eurocrat has such a formulaic mindset that if tomorrow Recep Erdoğan broke up an ordinary protest march in Ankara, Schultz would point to that as another example of «Putinization». It is more important to give some thought to the new political trends in Eastern Europe.

The meeting on Jan. 6, 2016 between Jarosław Kaczyński and Viktor Orbán in southern Poland was certainly worthy of note. The arrows of criticism being aimed at each of these politicians by European liberals seem to be driving them into a closer relationship. During their unofficial meeting, they tried to ferret out some common ground between their governments, looking for a way out from under the liberal press that is suffocating Europe. Warsaw’s anti-Russian agenda has previously had a deeply negative impact on the work of the Visegrad Group, to which both these Eastern European countries belong. But now this situation is being viewed differently in light of the «axis of the nation states of Europe». That is almost a euphemism, but the bottom line – opposition to the supranational institutions of the European Union – is clear. At the heart of this policy lies a sense of Euroscepticism, as well as the «Jagiellonian idea» («idea Jagiellońska»), or the desire to maintain a vigorous presence within the sphere of «Polish cultural influence», which Warsaw believes to include Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine.

This recent Polish «resistance» to European supranational institutions is a development worth closer inspection. And that examination can best be done through the prism of History, which is, incidentally, something that the Law and Justice Party is naturally inclined to do.

This appeal to history and very keen awareness of the facts of the historical past is a very old and very typical predilection for many Poles…

However, it is worth remembering that there was a time when the Russian border followed a boundary line that was fair to all ethnic groups, almost retracing the famous Curzon Line. Russia established sovereignty only over the Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians. And only after Polish attempts at revenge did Russia seize slices of historically Polish territory, although not from the Poles themselves (!), but from Austria and Prussia, creating a buffer within the borders of the Russian Empire, which took the form of the Kingdom of Poland.

This is a reminder of the past – not an end goal. The fact that the «Jagiellonian idea» is the party line for the PiS suggests that the dialog between today’s Poland and the West, and also the East, will be largely rooted in History.