US President Donald Trump has thanked Poland and Polish Americans for their contribution to the United States over the past 250 years, praising a relationship that began with Polish participation in the American Revolution and describing himself as a “great friend of the people of Poland”.
The remarks came in a video address to a Polish American Congress event in Washington marking the United States’ 250th anniversary and the Polish contribution to its history.
The official @POTUS account accompanying the message described Poland as a “great 250 year ally and partner”, while Trump told participants that Polish Americans had helped the United States both win and defend its freedom.
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“It is an honor for me to welcome Polish-Americans from across the country to Washington,” Trump said as the gathering marked what organisers called 250 years of Polish contributions to America.
He singled out Tadeusz Kościuszko and Casimir Pulaski, two Polish military commanders who fought on the American side during the War of Independence.
Trump said the United States might not exist in its present form without figures such as Pulaski and Kościuszko.
The two men have long occupied a central place in Polish-American historical memory. Kościuszko served as a military engineer in the Continental Army, while Pulaski became a cavalry commander and was mortally wounded during the fighting at Savannah in 1779.
The presidential message formed part of the inauguration of “250 Years of America: The Polish Contribution”, a nationwide educational project organised by the Polish American Congress.
The Polish Senate confirmed that the initiative was formally launched in Washington on 24 September, with a Polish parliamentary delegation attending alongside Polish-American organisations and US representatives.
The exhibition was opened in the Presidential Suite at Washington’s Union Station and is intended to document the part played by successive generations of Poles and Polish Americans in US military, political, economic, scientific and cultural life.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki also sent a message to the event, saying the history of Poles and Americans had become intertwined around shared ideas of freedom and independence.
In his letter to the Polish American Congress initiative, Nawrocki said he hoped the project would increase awareness of the contribution made by several generations of Poles to the development of the United States.
Trump also used his message to praise Nawrocki personally.
“I’m also a great friend of the people of Poland,” he said, before thanking the Polish president and describing him as a “great fighter” and a “strong person”.
Trump additionally referred to his endorsement of Nawrocki during Poland’s presidential election. His comments about that election represent Trump’s own political assessment rather than an independent measure of its outcome or significance.
The US president also thanked the Polish-American community for the support he received during the 2024 US presidential election and referred to the approaching congressional elections in November.
Trump’s invocation of a 250-year Polish-American relationship reflects the historical connection between Polish volunteers and the American Revolution, rather than 250 years of uninterrupted formal diplomatic or military alliance.
According to the US State Department’s historical record, the United States formally recognised the re-established Polish state in January 1919, with full diplomatic relations established later that year.
The modern military alliance is newer still. Poland became a full member of NATO on 12 March 1999, placing the two countries under the alliance’s collective-defence framework.
Nevertheless, US governments have long traced the broader relationship back to the Revolutionary War. A US State Department overview similarly identifies Kościuszko and Pulaski’s service to the American independence cause as the beginning of the countries’ historic ties.
Trump himself used similar language during his first presidency. At a 2020 White House meeting with then-President Andrzej Duda, he said Americans and Poles had been “true friends and trusted partners for almost 250 years”.
This year’s commemorations coincide with the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, signed on 4 July 1776.
The Polish American Congress says more than 10 million Americans claim Polish ancestry and argues that generations of Polish immigrants and their descendants have contributed to US military service, business, science, culture and public life.
For Washington and Warsaw, the historical commemorations come against the background of a much more contemporary security partnership, with Poland now one of the principal US military partners on NATO’s eastern flank.
Trump’s latest message therefore combines two strands of the relationship: the Revolutionary-era story of Kościuszko and Pulaski and the modern political and military partnership between Poland and the United States.
