• Mr. Trump’s trip to Europe is expected to culminate with a high–stakes meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that could have significant repercussions globally and back home. Even the American leader’s aides do not know precisely what he will say when the two meet face to face.
• West European countries had been hoping to isolate Mr. Trump after he rejected the Paris climate change agreement, but those efforts appear to be faltering.
Trump weighs a “pretty severe” response to North Korea.
Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he was weighing “some pretty severe things” to respond to the nuclear threat from North Korea, and he called on all nations to confront what he called the “global threat” from Pyongyang.
“We’ll see what happens — I don’t like to talk about what we have planned — but I have some pretty severe things that we’re thinking about,” Mr. Trump said at the news conference with Mr. Duda. “They are behaving in a very, very serious manner, and something will have to be done about it.”
North Korea conducted a successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appeared capable of hitting Alaska. Mr. Trump said he and Mr. Duda had spoken about confronting terrorism as well as “the threat from North Korea, and that’s what it is — it is a threat, and we will confront it very strongly.”
He said the United States and nations around the world must “demonstrate that there are consequences for their very, very bad behavior.” — Julie Hirschfeld Davis
In a speech, Trump is expected to call for West to remain resolute against terrorism.
Mr. Trump on Thursday plans to deliver a message of determination in the face of terrorism to the Polish people with a speech in which he was expected to say that the West must defend itself in a good-versus-evil fight against extremism.
“I am here today not just to visit an old ally, but to hold it up as an example for others who seek freedom and who wish to summon the courage and the will to defend our civilization,” Mr. Trump is expected to say in a speech in Krasinski Square, where a monument commemorates the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.”
“We must stand united against these shared enemies to strip them of their territory, their funding, their networks, and any form of ideological support,” Mr. Trump will say, according to excerpts provided by the White House in advance. “While we will always welcome new citizens who share our values and love our people, our borders will always be closed to terrorism and extremism.”
Mr. Trump will also say that Americans and Europeans must confront the danger of “the steady creep of government bureaucracy that drains the vitality and wealth of the people,” citing the value of individual freedom and sovereignty. — Julie Hirschfeld Davis
Poland to buy missile defense system from the U.S.
Mr. Trump is to announce on Thursday that Poland has agreed to buy the Patriot missile defense system from the United States, a senior administration official said, opening his European trip with a show of support for a nation moving to respond to Russian aggression.
Mr. Trump was expected to make an announcement about the sale after a meeting with Mr. Duda, a right-wing leader whose populist tendencies match his own.
At the news conference, Mr. Trump said the United States was working with Poland to address what he described as destabilizing behavior on the part of Russia. — Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Glenn Thrush