Former President Donald Trump was expected to visit the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa on Sunday but his campaign spokesman said on Thursday that Trump will not be coming after all. The reason for his change of plans was not given.
On Sunday, the church will unveil a statue honoring those who gave their lives during the Solidary movement that led to the overthrow of Communism in Poland. Polish President Andrzej Duda is expected to come to attend.
Michael Blichasz, president of the Polish American Cultural Center in Philadelphia, said Trump and Duda are friends.
Trump was “very supportive of the Solidarity movement,” said Blichasz, before Trump got into politics, when he was a developer in New York in the 1980s.
“This should be a very beautiful event,” said Blichasz. “The unveiling of the statue, the monument, is the most important event.”
The ceremony is not political and there will not be a rally. However, “people will be interested to see the former president of the United States and the president of the homeland of Poland there.” The two men have “known each other a long time,’ added Blichasz.
“I think it’s a great and beautiful thing to see two friends unite, coming together at America’s Polish shrine and unveiling this beautiful monument commemorating Solidarity,” said Stephen Smolczynski, community outreach director for the Polish American Cultural Center. “It’s something you don’t see every day.” He added that the ceremony will be about Solidarity, not politics.
“No campaigning,” he said.
There are 824,146 Polish-Americans in Pennsylvania or 6.7 percent of the population. Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, mentioned them when the two debated in Philadelphia earlier this month. Harris slammed Trump over the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, claiming that if Trump were president, Russian leader Vladimir Putin would invade the rest of Europe, beginning with Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine. She said Putin would “eat you for lunch.”
When Trump was president, Russia did not invade any neighboring nations, unlike during the Obama (Crimea) and Biden (Eastern Ukraine) administrations.
Warminster resident Maryanne Brown said, “I’m all for Trump. A lot of my friends, who are Polish-American, are all for Trump because when he was in office, gas was cheaper, groceries were a lot cheaper. The economy was better, and more people were working.
“I definitely think he’s going to win,” said Brown, noting all the Trump signs she sees in Bucks County. “It’s going to be close, but he’s going to win.”
Jadwiga Heally of Doylestown, who is a Polish American, supports Trump.
“I think we [Polish Americans] are for Trump because most of us lived under socialism, and it’s coming to the United States in small steps. But a lot of people put blindfolds on. They don’t want to hear it. They think, ‘It’s not going to affect me.’ Well, guess what? It’s going to affect everybody.”
She believes Trump will do something to fight it.
“He knows how to move it the right way,” she said. “And people just need to let him do his job.”
Heally came to America from Poland at age 19 with $8 in her pocket, found a job and worked hard to get ahead.
“I don’t want to go back to the conditions I was living in. I came to the United States to have a better life, not be controlled, not be manipulated.”
“Many people say he’s all for money,” Heally said about Trump. “He is for saving this country because he loves his family. He loves his children and grandchildren.”
Media resident Richard Micun, whose dad was Polish, also supports Trump and said it’s good for Trump to reach out to the Polish American community.
“I absolutely think he needs to connect with voters and the Polish community, the Christian community. He’s reaching out to people of faith… I’m excited for Donald Trump to come to our area again. He’s reaching out to people of faith and connecting with them, and I hope they support him.”
Theresa Romanoski, special events coordinator with the Polish American Cultural Center, said she was planning to attend the unveiling and blessing of the monument.
The people in the Solidarity movement “meant so much. They’re the ones, the heroes, who broke down communism. (Eastern) Europe is free because from Poland, everyone else started to democracy.”
A Mass celebrated in Polish will precede the unveiling of the monument.
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