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A US judge Thursday declined to block President Donald Trump ‌from proceeding with construction of a $400mn White House ballroom to replace the demolished East Wing, finding ​that a challenge from preservationists did not ‌meet the high bar for a preliminary injunction that would halt the project for now. US ‌District Judge Richard Leon's ⁠ruling came in a lawsuit ‌by the National Trust for Historic Preservation aiming ‌to stop construction until the White House complies with federal law and rules including congressional authorisation. The National Trust had sought ⁠a preliminary injunction to freeze the work on the ballroom, planned to be 90,000sq ft (8,360sq m), while the private nonprofit group's lawsuit proceeds.The Trump administration has argued that the project is consistent with established presidential renovation practices and serves the public interest.Leon, in his ruling, said he could not issue an injunction based on the specific arguments the National Trust made, but he said the group could amend its complaint to reassert its claims that Trump is acting beyond his authority."Unfortunately, because both sides initially focused on the President's constitutional authority to ​destruct and construct the East Wing of the White House, Plaintiff didn't bring the necessary cause of action to test the statutory authority the President claims is the basis to do this construction project without the blessing of Congress and with private funds," ‌Leon wrote in his ruling.Trump in a post ⁠on his Truth Social ​platform called the decision "Great news for America, and our wonderful White House!" He said the ballroom "will ​stand long into the future as a symbol to the Greatness of America!"The National Trust did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The National Trust sued Trump and several federal agencies in December, arguing that the project moved ahead unlawfully without required approvals, environmental review or authorisation by Congress.Trump's demolition of the East Wing building, a part of the White House complex originally built in 1902 during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency and greatly expanded in 1942 during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, was carried out in October. Construction equipment tore down the structure, which had housed the first lady's offices, a theatre and a visitors' entrance that welcomed foreign dignitaries.The ballroom project is one of several major changes Trump has made to the White House since returning to office ‌in January 2025. Trump has added gold accents ‌throughout the Oval Office and converted the Rose ⁠Garden lawn into a paved patio resembling one at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.The National Trust argued that federal ⁠law bars construction on federal parkland in Washington ⁠without the express authority of Congress. It also argued the National Park Service violated federal law by issuing an environmental assessment instead of a full impact statement, and by releasing it after demolition had begun. "No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else," the lawsuit said.The administration has defended the legality of the project, arguing it follows in a long line of presidential ​renovations. It said in a court filing that the ballroom is needed for state functions, its design is still evolving and above-ground construction is not planned until April, making an injunction unnecessary. Last week, the US Commission of Fine Arts approved Trump’s ballroom proposal. The panel, whose commissioners were appointed by Trump in January, advanced the project on a unanimous 6-0 vote.Trump's swift demolition of the East Wing drew scorn from preservationists and other critics, who saw the project as an extension of the Republican president's claims of expansive presidential powers. Trump has defended the project, asserting in a post on his Truth Social platform that his use of private donations for the project means "ZERO taxpayer funding." Trump called the planned ‌ballroom a "desperately needed space."No firm ​completion date has been given but the White House said it will be "long before the end" of Trump's term. 

US ‌Vice-President J D Vance took aim at Democrats in a partisan speech Thursday in a competitive Wisconsin ‌district, as the White House tries to protect a narrow Republican majority in the ‌House of Representatives ⁠ahead of the ‌November 3 midterm elections. Vance visited Plover, part of ‌Wisconsin's third congressional district, which lies at the heart of the region that first lifted Donald ⁠Trump to the White House in 2016.Democrats are targeting this district in their quest to regain control of the lower house of Congress, leaning on voters' dissatisfaction with the state of the economy. The district's incumbent congressman, Derrick Van Orden, won re-election in 2024 by less than three points.Van Orden sits in one of two Republican-held seats in Wisconsin that Democrats are targeting in the midterms. The former Navy SEAL senior chief is closely aligned ​with the president, whose polling on the economy has worsened since he retook office last January.Vance argued Democrats deserve blame for higher prices that started rising during the Biden administration."Hearing the Democrats talk about affordability ‌is like hearing an arsonist complain ⁠about fire," said Vance, ​speaking at a machining plant.Voters in the third district, located in the southwestern part ​of the state, delivered victories for a string of Democratic presidential candidates for decades, including Barack Obama, until Donald Trump carried the district in 2016. He also won the district by seven points in 2024, part of a sweep of battleground states that propelled him to victory over Democrat Kamala Harris.In Wisconsin, the vice-president visited a factory, Pointe Precision, and underscored the Republican president's economic message from Tuesday's State of the Union address. During that speech, Trump promoted his efforts on a sweep of kitchen-table economic issues from housing to healthcare and utility bills. But he stopped short ‌of acknowledging that many Americans are still ‌struggling with the high cost of ⁠food and housing. Just 36% of voters approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according ⁠to the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. Some ⁠Republican Party strategists have warned that without a more emphatic message on inflation, Republicans are at risk of losing control of Congress in November."J D Vance has a tough job today," said Mandela Barnes, a Democratic candidate in the state's competitive gubernatorial election, also set for November. "He’s got to look Wisconsin families in the eye and tell them this economy is working for them."The White House is ​set to showcase the president and top administration officials in competitive political areas to highlight Trump's economic agenda. He is expected to visit Texas on Friday for an event focused on energy and the economy.Vance's trip was his second in office to Wisconsin's third congressional district after a trip to La Crosse in August.National Democrats said this week they are ramping up spending in the district, where Van Orden won re-election in 2024 by fewer than three percentage points.Trump endorsed Van Orden in the 2026 race 10 months ago. The primary election to ‌pick his Democratic opponent ​will be held on August 11. 

Volatile US tariff policy is accelerating efforts in Africa to reduce reliance on the dollar in trade settlements, with companies exploring greater use of China’s renminbi and local currencies, the head of pan-African lender Ecobank Transnational Inc said.Despite comparatively low levels of trade with the US, Africa hasn’t been shielded from the fallout of White House tariff decisions, Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Awori said in an interview last week.Trade between the two was $83.4bn in 2025, about 16% more than the previous year, according to US Census Bureau data. That pales in comparison with $315bn of flows between the continent and China, according to estimates by Ecobank’s economists.“We are going to see more options around direct renminbi conversion into African currency,” Awori said. “We also need to look at trading in African currencies, because if we can trade in our own local currencies, that takes off the pressure on the need for US dollars.”The expiry of the African Growth and Opportunity Act — which allows duty- and quota-free exports to the US — and its renewal subject to annual review have created fresh uncertainty for manufacturers and exporters, Awori said.Intra-Africa trade was valued at about $220bn in 2024, representing about 15% of the continent’s total, according to the UN Trade and Development agency.Enhancing trade within the continent will be a critical hedge against external geopolitical uncertainty, according to Awori, mentioning Nigeria’s new oil refinery as an example of how regions can trade more with each other. The 650,000 barrel-a-day Dangote facility will provide refined gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for Nigeria and other markets in Africa.“We would really hope to see more value addition across all segments, whether it is in mining, oil and gas, or agriculture, to push up this intra-Africa trade going forward,” he said. “But there are still issues we need to solve in terms of non-tariff barriers, bureaucracy among others.” 

His Excellency the Minister of State for Foreign Trade Affairs Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Sayed met with a number of US officials during an official visit to the US capital, Washington, DC, reports QNA. A statement issued on Saturday by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry confirmed that HE al-Sayed met with US Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler; Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Michael Kratsios; and Special Assistant to the President of the US and Senior Director for Global Supply Chains at the National Security Council David Copley.**media[413949]**During the meetings, they discussed ways to enhance economic and trade relations between the State of Qatar and the US, in addition to a number of topics of mutual interest. HE al-Sayed emphasised the importance of the partnership between the two countries in several fields, including the economy, trade, and investment, noting that this partnership is witnessing continuous development that reflects the strength of bilateral relations and the desire of both sides to further enhance them in the future. 

On paper, Venezuela has enough oil reserves to maintain production at current levels for more than 800 years, an enticing prospect for the White House as it pushes Big Oil to get the petrostate gushing again.But the South American nation’s claim that it sits atop more than 300bn barrels, 17% of the world’s total and surpassing even Saudi Arabia, has long been questioned by some industry experts — including the very firm hired to help evaluate the resource under the late socialist icon Hugo Chávez. More realistic estimates peg Venezuela’s reserves at around a third or less than the marquee label.Proven reserves refer to the estimated amount of crude that with reasonable certainty can be commercially recovered under current economic, technological and regulatory conditions, a threshold that Venezuela’s veteran oil engineers and other experts have long maintained the country’s claim doesn’t meet.When Venezuela’s national oil company contracted a resource certification consultancy to evaluate the vast Orinoco Oil Belt in the late-2000s, experts say the Chávez government seized on — and embellished — the results to project political influence at home and abroad at a time of spiraling oil prices and resource nationalist fervor. The claim stuck and later helped the country to access more financing.“Some of the numbers that were accredited to our firm were not necessarily exactly what we were calculating,” said Herman Acuna, president of Houston-based Ryder Scott that assessed the full belt in stages from 2008 to 2011, using logs from Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Ryder Scott issued public clarifications at the time to highlight the contingent nature of the resources, he said.National oil companies like PDVSA sometimes “take liberties” with the data to showcase their countries’ potential, said Acuna, who headed up the project at the time.To be sure, even accounting for some fuzziness in the data and the sludgy nature of most Venezuelan oil, conservative estimates still suggest a colossal volume of oil lies in the ground, keeping the Opec nation firmly in the big leagues. But the questions surrounding Venezuela’s reserves highlight how such widely touted data can be politicized and distorted, rendering it unreliable at best and highly misleading at worst.Venezuela’s proven reserves would be far less than the country’s official claim, said Rice University energy expert Francisco Monaldi. He said a conservative estimate would be “about 110bn barrels.”The volume of Venezuelan oil that’s economically viable to produce today is smaller still. In a new calculation reflecting the post-Maduro landscape, Oslo-based research firm Rystad Energy estimates that number at 60bn barrels.PDVSA and the oil and information ministries didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.For investors, the reserves issue is ultimately a “red herring,” said Luis Pacheco, a former senior PDVSA executive. “Even if the reserves were 50bn barrels, rather than 300bn barrels, Venezuela could produce 3mn barrels for 45 years.”Such lofty numbers help explain why Venezuela remains attractive to big oil companies like Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips, in a world with dwindling opportunities to substantially bulk up their balance-sheet reserves. In Venezuela, they can recover old debts and meet demand from US Gulf Coast refineries.Chevron is the only major oil company that currently has US authorization to pump Venezuelan oil, but others are expected to get a green light soon now that the US has captured strongman Nicolas Maduro and vowed to reopen the country’s economy to foreign investment.The campaign to recalculate Venezuela’s oil wealth, dubbed Proyecto Magna Reserva Petrolera, came at a politically charged moment in the 2000s.The Chavez administration, including his long-serving Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, had sacked thousands of PDVSA’s experienced engineers and managers who had gone on strike to protest state meddling. Then, the government took over Exxon’s and ConocoPhillips’s assets in 2007, putting a diminished PDVSA back in control.To get to the dizzying 300bn barrel figure, the government inflated the assumption around how much of the Orinoco oil could realistically be produced, Monaldi and other oil experts said. The official 20% threshold of oil in place — or the total volume of the resource — that the politicians deemed to be recoverable was more than double what had been achieved by PDVSA and its partners.“In reality, Venezuela has only achieved about a 7% to 8% recovery,” Monaldi said.The politicians had also expediently set aside the poor quality and questionable economic and technical viability of most of the resources, said Venezuelan oil engineer Gustavo Coronel, who was among PDVSA’s first board directors in the 1970s.Still, “Venezuela boasted that it had the largest oil reserves on the planet, and people repeated it like parrots,” said Coronel.The Chavez government invited ideologically aligned state-owned oil companies from Uruguay to Belarus to plant a flag in the Oil Belt, even though none had the expertise or access to capital to invest there. Big refineries and pipelines that Chávez promised never materialized.Oil prices collapsed not long after Chavez’s death in 2013, and under his hand-picked successor Maduro, Venezuela’s production tumbled in a haze of mismanagement, underinvestment and corruption. Sanctions accelerated the decline.“Venezuela could be producing perhaps 10 times as much if those same resources were, say, in Texas with the institutions and taxes of Texas,” said Monaldi. Canada, which has heavy oil similar to Venezuela’s, produces more than four times as much, he added.The country is estimated to need upwards of $100bn in investment over a decade to get back to its last sustained peak of more than 3mn barrels a day reached in the 1990s.To arrive at its 60bn barrel calculation, Rystad factored in better access to technology, the lifting of US oil sanctions, a favorable investment climate and political stability — all assumptions that have yet to be fulfilled. Its previous 2024 calculation of 27bn barrels was based on a full-sanctions scenario.With a realistic oil price and investment commitments, Rystad’s latest estimate is enough to return Venezuela to its peak over the next 20 years “and maintain this level for a very long time,” according to Rystad’s Deputy Head of Research Artem Abramov. Venezuela is currently producing less than 1mn barrels a day.Despite the questionable foundations for Venezuela’s reserves claim, the national number is published by Opec and other sources, mainly because there is no audited alternative. Chevron only calculates its own reserves in the country.Compared to Saudi Arabia, whose lighter oil is cheaper and easier to produce, Venezuela’s extra-heavy Orinoco grade requires blending with lighter crude oil or naphtha, a form of diluent, or sophisticated plants to upgrade it. International oil companies built four such plants in Venezuela in the 1990s, but today only one them, run by Chevron, is operating.As the Trump administration moves to control more of the country’s oil supply under new interim President Delcy Rodriguez — who has run the industry as oil minister since 2024 — international prices for the commodity will be critical.Rystad Partner and Head of Emerging Markets Schreiner Parker said Venezuela could boost current daily production by around a third, or roughly 300,000 barrels, at a break-even cost well below current price levels. Beyond that production threshold, the costs start to go up, requiring higher oil prices to justify investment.If oil companies decide to invest, they would seek to certify their share of reserves, as Chevron has, in the context of their own production projects.For now, Exxon Mobil Corp’s top executive Darren Woods said in a White House meeting this month that Venezuela is “uninvestable” without structural above-ground changes, including legal and tax reforms.The bigger question of how much total oil lies beneath Venezuela will likely remain opaque. Verifiable economic data remains scarce, and it’s too early to tell if US involvement will bring greater transparency.“On the question of oil reserves, there is no such thing as objective truth,” Parker said. “Think about Russia, Venezuela or Saudi Arabia, where are you gonna get an empirical benchmark there that can be trusted?” 

The White House announced some of the members of what it refers to as the Board of Peace, which, under President Donald Trump’s plan, will oversee the temporary administration of the Gaza Strip.In a statement, the White House said the names include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Private Equity billionaire Marc Rowan, President of the World Bank Group Ajay Banga, and Trump adviser Robert Gabriel. Former United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov will assume the role of High Representative for Gaza, noting that additional members will be announced in the coming weeks.Trump’s plan, unveiled late last year, which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian technocratic authority under the supervision of what it termed an international Board of Peace to oversee the administration of Gaza during a transitional period, indicates that the US president himself would chair the council.The statement did not specify the responsibilities of each member, but it did include the appointment of Major General Jasper Jeffers, the former commander of US special operations, as commander of the international stabilization force in the territory. 

The White House has ordered US military forces to focus almost exclusively on enforcing a "quarantine" of Venezuelan oil for at least the next two months, a US official told Reuters, indicating that Washington is currently more interested in using economic rather ⁠than military means to pressure Caracas."While military options ⁠still exist, the focus is to first use economic pressure by enforcing sanctions to reach the outcome the White House is looking (for)," the official said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.While President Donald Trump has been publicly coy about his precise aims regarding Venezuela, he has privately pressured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to flee the nation, Reuters has reported.Trump said on Monday that it would be smart for Maduro to leave power."The efforts so far have put tremendous pressure on Maduro, and the belief is that by late January, Venezuela will be facing an economic calamity unless it agrees to make significant concessions to the US," the official said.Trump has accused the South American country of flooding the US with drugs, and his administration has ⁠for months been bombing boats originating in South America that it alleges were carrying drugs.Many nations have condemned the attacks as extrajudicial killings.Trump has also frequently threatened to start bombing drug infrastructure on land, and has authorised covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) activity directed at Caracas.So far this month, the US Coast Guard has intercepted two tankers in the Caribbean Sea, both fully loaded with Venezuelan crude.The comments by the White House official on Wednesday come after Reuters reported that the Coast Guard was waiting for additional forces to carry out a third seizure, first attempted on Sunday, against an empty sanctioned vessel known as the Bella-1.Venezuela's UN ambassador Samuel Moncada said on Tuesday: "The threat is not Venezuela. The threat is the US government."The White House official did not elaborate on precisely what it meant for the military to focus "almost exclusively" on interdicting Venezuelan oil.The ⁠US military's footprint sprawls across the globe, and most missions and capabilities are unrelated to maritime interdiction.The Pentagon has amassed a huge military presence in the Caribbean with more than 15,000 troops.That includes an aircraft carrier, 11 other warships and more than a dozen F-35 aircraft.While many assets can be used to help with enforcing sanctions, many others, like fighter jets, are not well-suited for that task.On Tuesday, the United States told the United Nations that it will impose and enforce sanctions "to the maximum extent" to deprive Maduro of resources.Earlier this month, Trump ordered a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, but the White House official's use instead of the word "quarantine" appears to echo language used during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the administration of US president John F Kennedy wanted to avoid an escalation.Robert McNamara, Kennedy's defence secretary at the time, said in 2002: "We called it a quarantine because blockade is a word of war."On Wednesday UN experts condemned the blockade, ⁠saying that such a use of force is recognised "as illegal armed aggression". 

The State of Qatar has expressed its strong condemnation and denunciation of the shooting incident that occurred near the White House in the United States of America, which resulted in the injury of two National Guard members, affirming its full solidarity with the United States, its government and people.In a statement issued Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated the State of Qatar's firm stance rejecting violence, terrorism, and criminal acts, regardless of the motives and reasons.The Ministry also conveyed Qatar's wishes for a swift recovery for the injured. 

Members of Congress hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the US Capitol Wednesday, on the second day of a visit to Washington that has aimed to tout stronger-than-ever economic and security ties.President Donald Trump gave bin Salman a lavish welcome at the White House on Tuesday. A handful of Republican members of Congress, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, attended a black-tie gala dinner at the White House for bin Salman on Tuesday.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sat near him during Tuesday's Oval Office meeting. Trump repeatedly said it was "an honour" to be friends with the Saudi leader, and the two men held hands. The crown prince arrived at Congress for a reception hosted by Johnson and attended by some Democrats as well as some of Trump's fellow Republicans.The meeting was not announced and the speaker's office did not respond to a request for comment. No similar meeting was held in the Senate. Neither Johnson nor Republican Senate Leader John Thune had the type of press opportunity, with photos and remarks, that is often held when world leaders visit the Capitol. Leaving the hour-long session with bin Salman, Mast said it had been a "fantastic" meeting that covered topics from Saudi Arabia's future internally, to Israel and Gaza, technology transfers, and efforts to thwart Chinese espionage."We covered just a lot of ground and covered a lot of ground with his royal highness at the White House last night as well," Mast told Reuters. Bin Salman, who agreed in the meeting with Trump to increase the kingdom's planned investments in the US to $1tn from $600bn, also attended an investment conference in Washington Wednesday that included CEOs from major US companies.The two sides also announced new agreements on arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation and artificial intelligence. Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, attended the House reception. Afterward, he called on the Trump administration to brief Congress on the agreements and questioned whether Trump's family businesses would benefit.Trump on Tuesday vehemently denied any conflict of interest with his family's Saudi investment interests.

Syria is joining the global coalition against the Islamic State group, a US official said Monday hours after President Donald Trump welcomed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa for historic White House talks.Sharaa, whose forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, was the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the Middle Eastern country's independence in 1946.But the 43-year-old's landmark visit to the Oval Office came just days after Washington removed him from its terrorism list."During the visit, Syria announced that it is joining the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS," becoming the 90th member of the alliance and "partnering with the US to eliminate ISIS remnants and halt foreign fighter flows," a senior administration official said.According to the official, Syria will also be allowed to resume diplomatic relations with Washington "to further counterterrorism, security, and economic co-ordination." Trump said he wanted Syria to become "very successful" after more than a decade of civil war and added that he believed Sharaa "can do it, I really do." "He's a very strong leader. He comes from a very tough place, and he's a tough guy," Trump told reporters after the meeting, which was closed to press."People said he's had a rough past, we've all had rough pasts... And I think, frankly, if you didn't have a rough past, you wouldn't have a chance." Trump said Syria was a "big part" of his plan for a wider Middle East peace plan, which the US president is hoping will prop up the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza."Having a stable and successful Syria is very important to all countries in the Region," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after the meeting.Despite this, Trump would not confirm reports that Syria would sign any non-aggression pact with Israel.Afterwards Sharaa was interviewed by broadcaster Fox News, saying Syria's ongoing dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights territory would make entering peace talks difficult now. But he suggested talks facilitated by Trump and Washington could help start negotiations.The Syrian president's visit capped a remarkable turnaround for a former fighter who once had a US bounty on his head.In dramatic scenes as he left his meeting with Trump, he climbed out of his motorcade to greet crowds of supporters outside the White House, surrounded on all sides by bodyguards.Syria's presidency said on X that Sharaa and Trump discussed the bilateral relationship, "the ways to strengthen and develop it, as well as a number of regional and international issues of common interest." It published photos of Trump standing and shaking hands with a smiling Sharaa beside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.Other pictures showed the Syrian leader sitting opposite Trump with top US officials including Vice President JD Vance, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and top US military officer Dan Caine.Since taking power, Syria's new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a more moderate image to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.Sharaa's White House visit is "a hugely symbolic moment for the country's new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from fighter to global statesman," said Michael Hanna, US programme director at the International Crisis Group.The Syrian met Trump for the first time in Saudi Arabia during the US leader's regional tour in May. At the time the 79-year-old Trump dubbed Sharaa, 43, as "a young, attractive guy." Sharaa was expected to seek US funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of devastating civil war.After his arrival in Washington, Sharaa over the weekend met with International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva over possible aid.Sharaa's past has caused controversy in some quarters but the State Department's decision Friday to remove him from the blacklist was widely expected.The Syrian president has also been making diplomatic outreach towards Washington's rivals. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in October in their first meeting since the removal of Assad, a key Kremlin ally.

President Donald Trump hosted new Polish President Karol Nawrocki Wednesday at the White House with a military flyover and an offer to send more US troops to the eastern European ally.Talks were expected to focus on efforts to end the war in Ukraine, where Trump's peacemaking efforts have been struggling to get traction.Trump called it a "stupid war" and said he thought ending it would have been "much easier" for him."It's going to get done," he vowed to reporters in the Oval Office, with Nawrocki at his side.Nawrocki, a nationalist historian and fervent Trump supporter, was in Washington for his first foreign visit as president after having visited the US leader to seek his backing during the Polish election campaign.Trump gave him a warm welcome, including an offer to boost the US military footprint in Poland."We'll put more there if they want," he said in the Oval Office. "We're with Poland all the way and we'll help Poland protect itself."Nawrocki praised the US troop presence and said it was "the first time in history" that Poland had been happy to host foreign troops, while stressing that Warsaw aims to keep increasing its own military spending within the NATO alliance.The White House said a flyover by F-16 and F-35 jets during Nawrocki's arrival commemorated the death of a Polish F-16 jet pilot killed last week while preparing for an air show.Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP that the flyover, which featured a so-called "missing-man formation," was staged to "honour the memory of a brave Polish fighter pilot, whose life was tragically taken too soon, and capture the special relationship between our two countries."While Trump and Nawrocki see eye-to-eye politically, Poland is closely watching the US leader's peace efforts in neighbouring Ukraine, which Warsaw has largely been frozen out of.Key Nato and EU member Poland has been a strong supporter of Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion and is a vital transit country for military and humanitarian supplies, as well as host to thousands of US troops.Trump's efforts to get Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the negotiating table have so far stalled.Putin vowed during a visit to Beijing Wednesday to keep fighting in Ukraine if a peace deal cannot be reached, while Zelensky said he hoped to talk to Trump today about possible additional sanctions against Russia.Nawrocki will also be seeking fresh support from Trump amid deep political polarization in Poland between himself and his country's pro-EU government, led by former European Council chief Donald Tusk.The novice Polish president recently blocked a law extending Ukrainian refugees' rights proposed by Tusk's government. Nawrocki has also, like Trump, opposed Ukraine's desire for Nato membership.The visit is nevertheless a chance for Trump to celebrate the election of yet another right-wing ally in Europe.Trump welcomed Nawrocki to the Oval Office in June before the Polish election, with the White House posting a picture of the pair grinning and giving the thumbs-up sign.During the election campaign, Nawrocki highlighted the importance of ties with the United States and his close ties with Trump. His "Poland First, Poles First" echoed Trump's "America First" slogan.