Polish president says he'll name a U.S. military base in his country 'Fort Trump'

Andrzej Duda and Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

Polish President Andrzej Duda wants the United States to establish a permanent military base in his country, and knows that President Trump reacts well to flattery, so he came up with a pretty solid plan to get his way: promise to name the base Fort Trump.

Duda and Trump appeared at a joint news conference in Washington on Tuesday, where Duda invited Trump to "post more American military troops in Poland" as a "guarantor of security." Duda said he would "very much like for us to set up a permanent American base in Poland which we would call Fort Trump. I firmly believe that this is possible."

Trump said he would consider the request. "He would pay the United States, meaning Poland would be paying billions of dollars for a base," Trump said. "We're looking at that more and more from the standpoint of defending really wealthy countries." Poland is closely watching Russia and its military moves, and Trump believes that having a presence in the country would keep Russian President Vladimir Putin in check. "I think that Russia has acted aggressively," he said. "They respect force. They respect strength, as anyone does. And we have the greatest strength in the world, especially now."

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.