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Trump said NATO nations need to spend at least 2 percent of their national economy, measured as GDP, on defense. Trump boasted of the missile defense systems the United States helped Poland set up.

The final threat, Trump said, was the “steady creep” of Western bureaucracy, a remark echoing former President Ronald Reagan.

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“The West became great not because of paperwork and regulations but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies,” Trump said. Whenever the West faces seemingly insurmountable threats, it always meets those threats with the “will to survive.”

“Americans, Poles, and the nations of Europe value individual freedom and sovereignty,” he continued.

Trump overall gave a stirring defense of U.S. and Western values that he believes should be world values.

“We strive for excellence,” said Trump. “We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression. We empower women as pillars of our society and of our success. We put faith and family, not government bureaucracy, at the centers of our lives and we debate everything … And above all, we value the dignity of every human life.”

Lech Walesa, the Polish union leader who led the group Solidarity, was in the audience, and Trump called him out. Walesa helped rock the Polish communist government in 1980 through a series of protests and strikes. The union leader later became Polish president in a free Poland.[lz_pagination]