Volkswacht Bodensee - Trump to dine with Polish president in New York

Real estate magnate Trump, on a one-day break from court appearances in his hush money criminal trial, will host Duda at his Trump Tower property in Manhattan.

When not tied up in legal proceedings, the Republican White House candidate has been conducting a kind of shadow diplomacy.

He has been taking meetings with global leaders and lashing out against the foreign policy of his November opponent, President Joe Biden.

Trump discussed NATO policy and the Ukraine war with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron last week, and entertained Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago last month.

Duda and Trump were close allies during the 77-year-old's previous Oval Office tenure, with Poland prioritizing its relationship with the United States -- sometimes to the detriment of its ties with the European Union.

Conservative Duda even proposed building a "Fort Trump" US military base on Polish soil.

Amid Trump's false assertions questioning his own 2020 election loss, Duda took more than a month to congratulate Biden on his presidential win.

A.Zbinden--VB