President delivers message to friendly audience in Poland. Glenn Thrush and Julie Hirschfeld Davis ©2017 New York Times President Donald Trump said WARSAW, POLAND — Thursday that Western civilization was at risk of decline, bringing a message about “radi
“The fundamental ques
tion of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” he said. “Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”
He made no mention of recent actions by the rightwing Polish government of President Andrzej Duda
that have upset European Union leaders, including a crackdown on judges and journalists and its refusal to accept more migrants.
Pressed at a news conference earlier in the day about Russian interference in the U.S. election, Trump said
that “nobody really knows” if other countries might have been involved. He blamed President Barack Obama for not responding publicly after Obama learned about possible election meddling last summer.
Trump — who is under pressure to confront Putin during their first face-to-face meeting in Hamburg today over his attempts to sway
the election — delivered a mixed message on Russia.
The president made his sharpest criticism of Moscow since taking office, urg
ing Russia to “cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere and its support for hostile regimes,
including Syria and Iran,” and asserting that it must “instead join the commu
nity of responsible nations in our fight against common
enemies and in defense of civilization itself.”
And Trump moved to reas- sure Poland and other allies fretful about Russia’s aggres-
sion, making a full-throated endorsement of the collective defense principle that
undergirds NATO, something he was unwilling to do during his first trip to
Europe in May. “The United States has demonstrated not merely with words but with its actions that we stand firmly behind Article 5, the mutual defense commitment,” Trump said.
But he also said he was not entirely convinced that Russia was solely responsible for interference in the 2016 election, breaking with U.S. intelligence agencies, which have agreed that the efforts emanated from Moscow and were directed by Putin.
“I think it was Russia, and it could have been other people in other countries,” Trump said. “Nobody really
knows for sure.” To back up his mes
sage about uncertainty, he recalled the intelligence failures that preceded President George W. Bush’s deci
sion to invade Iraq in 2003. “Everybody was 100 percent sure that Iraq had weap- ons of mass destruction,” Trump said. “They were wrong and it led to a mess.”
After meeting with Merkel in Hamburg on Thursday evening, Trump dined with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, discussing a response to the latest threats from North Korea, which launched what experts believe was its first
intercontinental ballistic missiles Tuesday.
Asked by a reporter whether he had given up on President Xi Jinping of China, whom Trump has repeatedly criticized for fail- ing to pressure North Korea to de-escalate, the president said, “Never give up.” The two are to meet sepa- rately in Hamburg today or Saturday.
Unlike Hamburg, there were no major protests in Warsaw, although there were signs of dissent.
Michael Schudrich, Poland’s chief rabbi, and other Jewish leaders criticized Trump’s decision not to visit a monument to the 1943 ghetto uprising, unlike every other U.S. president
and vice president who has visited Warsaw since the fall of communism in 1989.
“We deeply regret that President Donald Trump,
though speaking in public barely a mile away from the monument, chose to break with that laudable tradition, alongside so many other
ones,” the leaders said in a statement. “We trust that this slight does not reflect the attitudes and feelings of the American people.”
Hours after the rebuke, the White House sent word that Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, who is an observant Jew, had visited the ghetto site and laid a wreath at the monument there, visiting the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
In a statement distributed to reporters, Ivanka Trump said her visit was “a deeply moving experience.”
Donald Trump’s speech in Krasinski Square, which memorializes the Polish people’s resistance to tyranny, was well received, as was his message likening the fight
against the Islamic State group to Poland’s resistance of German invasion and occupation during World War II.
“We must stand united against these shared enemies to strip them of their territory, their funding, their networks and any form of ideological support,” Trump
said. “While we will always welcome new citizens who share our values and love our people, our borders will always be closed to terror-