PSL's Zgorzelski calls claim Trump urged Kosiniak-Kamysz to change coalition a 'pyramidal misunderstanding'

Denial from PSL

Telewizja Republika reported on Monday, 5 October, citing its own unofficial findings, that the possibility of changing Poland's prime minister may have come up during the talk between Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Donald Trump. Piotr Zgorzelski, deputy speaker of the Sejm from PSL, rejected that version on Friday in an interview with TVN24's 'Fakty po Faktach'. Asked whether Trump urged the PSL leader to leave the government coalition and work with the right, Zgorzelski said he could not confirm it because he was not at the meeting. He argued that PiS politicians raised the topic only months after the talk, and that demands for Kosiniak-Kamysz to confirm it were unjustified.

That is such a pyramidal misunderstanding that only right-wing politicians could come up with something like this.

Meeting and disputed topics

The meeting took place on 2 March in the Oval Office, and Nikodem Rachoń, now an adviser to President Karol Nawrocki, accompanied Kosiniak-Kamysz. Trump and one of his advisers took part on the American side. Kosiniak-Kamysz disclosed the meeting publicly only last week, saying he had a brief chance to talk with the US president and thanked him for the presence of American soldiers in Poland. Asked about the bases, Zgorzelski said they had been a topic, though perhaps not the main one, and when asked what the main topic was, he said he did not know. Donald Tusk said the meeting concerned 'rather the internal situation in Poland' and declined to give details, saying history would learn the subject one day. Adam Bielan, a PiS member of the European Parliament, said he had helped organise the conversation.

Background: postponed Hegseth meeting

Oko.press traces the affair back to 23 September, when Kosiniak-Kamysz was due to meet Pete Hegseth to discuss a permanent base for US troops in Poland, a subject under negotiation for several months. Shortly before the trip, the American side cancelled the meeting, or more precisely postponed it. Media asked whether political reasons lay behind the move, and a rumour spread, fed by politicians of the governing camp, that Adam Bielan was behind it. According to that rumour, the aim was to delay a decision on the base until the government changed, so that Tusk's government could not capitalise on it before the 2027 elections. Oko.press adds that the Trump administration was also preparing a visit by Xi Jinping at the time, and Bielan responded on Twitter to a statement by a PSL politician.

PiS line and Kaczyński's response

Newsweek reported that the PiS leadership decided its politicians should mock reports of an attempt by Trump to persuade Kosiniak-Kamysz to form a coalition with the right. According to the weekly's sources, party members are angry at the scale of media speculation about the March meeting, and the party plans to argue that it does not believe the official version and that Tusk's statements are not credible. An anonymous PiS politician told the weekly that the patriotic electorate does not want anyone foreign to decide who is prime minister, and that Poles must change the government themselves. Przemysław Czarnek said he did not want 'any capital' to interfere in forming coalitions in Poland, but did not say whether Trump raised the topic because he did not attend the meeting. Jarosław Kaczyński said he did not believe Tusk's version of events.

I completely do not believe Donald Tusk. I don't think there has been such a liar in Polish politics in the entire previous millennium.

Kaczyński rejected suggestions that Bielan could influence Trump, saying he appreciates Bielan but that Bielan cannot put pressure on Trump. He did not clearly answer whether the coalition question came up in the talk, and said the matter was being used as a pretext to strike at his party.