Trump Holds Series of Meetings With Foreign Leaders
Donald J. Trump plans to meet with the right-wing president of Poland this week, the latest in a series of his private interactions with leaders or emissaries from countries from the Persian Gulf to Eastern Europe, many of whom share an affinity with his brand of politics.
Mr. Trump is expected to have dinner in New York with Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, on Wednesday, his one day off from court this week, according to two people briefed on the arrangements who were not authorized to discuss them publicly. The meeting was mentioned as a possibility by Mr. Duda on X shortly after The New York Times approached his office for comment.
It will be a reunion for Mr. Trump and Mr. Duda, who once proposed naming a military base after Mr. Trump and who now shares power in Poland with a rival whose politics are much more aligned with those of President Biden.
Mr. Trump’s other recent interactions with foreign leaders and their representatives include a phone call he had last month with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, which was previously undisclosed. A senior Bahraini official described it as “a social call.”
The quickening tempo of this foreign outreach is in one sense unsurprising. Foreign leaders read the polls and understand that Mr. Trump could return to power.
Richard Haass, a former diplomat and the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, said there was nothing inherently wrong with such interactions. “There’s nothing unusual — or to put it positively, there’s everything usual — about foreign leaders meeting with the American equivalent of the leader of the opposition,” Mr. Haass said.