If Poland gets a US base it'll be called Fort Trump, Nawrocki says

Francine Lacqua and Zosia Wanat, Bloomberg News on Sep 22, 2026

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President Karol Nawrocki said he hopes the U.S. will finalize plans to establish a permanent military base in Poland and, if it does, the compound will be christened ‘Fort Trump.’

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, the Polish head of state said he is confident that a decision is “just a question of time” and he’d like construction to be completed before President Donald Trump’s term ends in 2029.

“When the work is finished by the U.S. administration, by both governments, I think then President Trump will personally be able to participate in the inauguration of Fort Trump,” Nawrocki said on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

The idea of a permanent U.S. base was first floated by Nawrocki’s predecessor Andrzej Duda in 2018. But since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 officials in Warsaw have redoubled their efforts to lock in a presence for U.S. troops.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk last week said he expects Russia to launch drone and missile strikes against Ukraine’s European allies as the two sides in the war become increasingly desperate.

Trump in recent days hailed “major progress” in talks with Warsaw and said that the location of the base may be announced “very soon.”

The deliberations come as concerns grow across the rest of Europe that the U.S. is preparing to scale down its military presence on the continent. Trump has told European allies they need to take on more responsibility for their own security and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is conducting a review of U.S. forces deployed in Europe.

Those concerns are particularly acute on the NATO’s eastern flank, where countries are closest to the in Ukraine and fell under Soviet control during the Cold War.

Nawrocki said Poland, which currently hosts about 10,000 U.S. troops on rotational basis, would be ready to accept some soldiers currently stationed in Germany if the U.S. decides to reduce their presence there.

“We are in the midst of a hybrid war,” Nawrocki said. “Russian provocations, on the one hand are shaping the future battlefield, but on the other hand, they’re testing the resilience of NATO. For sure the situation is serious.”

Nawrocki has cultivated close ties with Trump, who endorsed him during Poland’s 2025 presidential campaign. Since taking office, Poland’s president has cast his relationship with his U.S. counterpart as an asset for the country’s security, with their talks focusing on strengthening the U.S. military presence and defense cooperation.

Poland, one of NATO’s biggest defense spenders, has spent years pushing for a larger and more permanent U.S. military presence. Under an initial proposal, Duda offered to contribute more than $2 billion toward the project. That plan never materialized, though the U.S. did expand its military footprint in Poland as NATO reinforced its eastern flank.

In May, Trump said he would send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland.

The push for a permanent base has also gained momentum in recent months with representatives of the U.S. administration arriving in Poland earlier this month to scout for potential locations.

Nawrocki said there are still “administrative and financial issues” that need to be resolved. “It’s hard for me to give specific dates, but I think that this matter is for sure confirmed because President Trump is famous for keeping his word,” he said.

But Poland’s push to strengthen its defenses is adding to pressure on already strained public finances. In August, Poland announced a 2027 budget with a deficit equivalent to 7.1% of economic output, one of the widest in the European Union, in part due to heavy spending on defense.

Last week, Moody’s Ratings downgraded Poland by one step to A3 — the fourth-lowest investment-grade — and warned the country is struggling to contain its budget deficit. It pointed to a “continued standoff” between Nawrocki and Tusk’s pro-European government over legislation that would help ease fiscal tensions.

Nawrocki sought to downplay the risks, dismissing budget challenges as temporary.

“The situation is not that bad to be worried, but for sure it demands certain steps to be made,” he said. “So please rest assured. Polish economy is still strong and we are going to solve our own problems in our own home.”

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