WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Donald Trump was welcomed Thursday by an enthusiastic crowd in Warsaw that chanted his name and waved U.S. and Polish flags when he delivered an address – just as Poland’s government had promised.
Poland’s conservative government had reportedly promised the U.S. president enthusiastic crowds in its formal invitation – and it clearly delivered. People chanted “Donald Trump! Donald Trump!” before and after a speech in which the U.S. leader honored Poland’s traditional patriotic values and sacrifices for freedom during World War II.
Many in the crowd, which Warsaw police estimated at 15,000, said they had come from distant cities and towns in buses organized by the country’s populist ruling Law and Justice party.
“We are here from our own convictions and belief,” said Stanislaw Niesyn, who traveled from the city of Bydgoszcz, 270 kilometers (165 miles) away.
In Poland – unlike many places in Western Europe – many people hold Trump in genuine admiration for the way he seeks to preserve national traditions and close off borders out of fear of Islamic extremism.