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If politics with the Trump administration were a baseball game, most European countries would be striking out—with one exception. Poland, Europe’s rising military and economic power, seems to be coping with every curveball the United States throws its way, and even managing the occasional home run.

Some of its successes are due to tactics that any other European nation could replicate: amping up military spending, particularly on U.S. weapons; supporting U.S. policy; and making high-profile, high-dollar business deals with nuclear energy companies.

If politics with the Trump administration were a baseball game, most European countries would be striking out—with one exception. Poland, Europe’s rising military and economic power, seems to be coping with every curveball the United States throws its way, and even managing the occasional home run.

Some of its successes are due to tactics that any other European nation could replicate: amping up military spending, particularly on U.S. weapons; supporting U.S. policy; and making high-profile, high-dollar business deals with nuclear energy companies.

But perhaps the most important factor is the ideological similarity between MAGA and top Polish politicians—from anti-EU rhetoric to hard-line immigration policy—as well as the personal relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and Poland’s amateur boxer turned president, Karol Nawrocki.

Poland’s most recent win occurred in May, when it successfully lobbied the Trump administration to reverse a Defense Department decision to draw down U.S. troop numbers in Poland. The move contrasted with Germany and Romania, which both saw troop drawdowns amid a Pentagon policy aimed at divesting military forces from Europe.

The Department of Defense has separately said that Poland, thanks to its already high defense spending, will be among the countries deemed “model allies” that will receive unspecified “special favor” from the Trump administration. It’s an idea that has gained more currency recently thanks to........

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