Trump welcomes Polish president with flyover tribute to fallen fighter pilot
EXCLUSIVE: Eight fighter jets will conduct a flyover when Polish President Karol Nawrocki arrives at the White House Wednesday morning, Fox News Digital has learned.
President Donald Trump’s meeting with Nawrocki, whom Trump backed in the Polish elections earlier in 2025, comes amid ongoing negotiations between Poland’s neighboring Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict between the two countries.
“President Trump is looking forward to welcoming President Nawrocki to the White House, who recently won a historic election in Poland,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital. The “spectacular flyover will honor the memory of a brave Polish fighter pilot whose life was tragically taken too soon and capture the special relationship between our two countries.”
Four F-16 fighter jets are slated to perform a missing man formation Wednesday to honor a Polish Army F-16 pilot who died in an August crash during a rehearsal for an airshow in Radom, Poland.
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Additionally, four F-35 fighter jets will also fly over the White House to recognize the relationship between the U.S. and Poland. The U.S. sells F-35 fighter jets to allies including Poland, and the State Department signed off on a potential $1.85 billion sale of sustainment equipment for the F-35 to Poland in August.
Likewise, the U.S. started training Polish aviators to operate the F-35 in May at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas.
This isn’t the first time a flyover has occurred when the Polish president has visited the White House. One was also conducted in 2019 during Trump’s first term when then-Polish President Andrzej Duda arrived in Washington.
Nawrocki’s visit comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin has escalated his attacks against Ukraine, despite a meeting in August with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska in an attempt to advance a peace deal.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has sought to work with European allies in recent weeks on nailing down various security guarantees for Ukraine to safeguard against Russian aggression again.
While Trump initially said a trilateral meeting with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in the works following his meeting with Putin, Russia has shown disinterest in such a meeting.
As a result, Trump said Tuesday there would be consequences if Putin failed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We’re going to see what happens,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “We’re going to see what they do and what happens. I’m watching it very closely…I want to see it end.”
Nawrocki is slated to arrive at the White House at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
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