Łukasz Grzegorczyk: I have 2 words that suit you perfectly.
Marcin Crowa: Yes?
Under voltage. But this time it's not the name of the show you ran 20 years ago.
Definitely, in a way, my professional life has run a circle. Now there's not just the White home under voltage, but the full of Washington. We have a immense concern among people who are afraid of losing their jobs, due to the fact that here many people work for the government administration, which Donald Trump is losing weight. In fact, Elon Musk does it, and not gently, but with a machete.
A correspondent in the U.S. is simply a no-holding ride today?
A correspondent in Washington wakes up in the morning and immediately checks his email box and social media Donald Trump to see what fresh he wrote. He sleeps only a fewer hours a day, so sometimes his entries appear late at night, or early in the morning.
But that's your element. You're the screen talker.
I am.
And you get off easy erstwhile you start talking.
This besides causes the programme publishers to get hair on their head, due to the fact that they are incapable to halt me sometimes (Laughter).
Is this the most intense professional six months of your life?
If it's not the most intense time, it's definitely 1 of the most intense. And the Donald Trump administration itself is intense on steroids, due to the fact that there's no day for the president not to take the floor, not to talk to journalists for half an hour.
A lot of what Trump says repeats itself.
But during each of these events abruptly one, two, 3 news that needs to be caught. They can turn everything around.
How much does a nearly 20-year-old background help?
Background is always a value. What matters is who you work with. I am very fortunate due to the fact that in our tiny abroad editorial “Facts” I can trust on anyone who is there.
Everyone worked in the field and knows what's going on. Andrzej Zaucha, erstwhile correspondent in Moscow. Katarzyna Sławińska, erstwhile correspondent in the United States. Monika Krajewska, who goes to various events. Anna Czerwińska, who makes relations with the EU and NATO summits. Maciej Woroch is in London, Maciej Sokołowski in Brussels. It's a powerful value.
That's what gives me the freedom to tell. all year I appreciate it more and more, and I started working in the profession erstwhile I was 19. I'm turning 56 in a fewer months, so you can number how much I'm in.
So how do you work at the White home for almost six months after Donald Trump's return?
I request to item 1 thing here. I'm not a White home correspondent.
Because you didn't want to?
No, due to the fact that that means you practically live in the White House. You start there the day at dawn and leave only after they announce the alleged end of the day for serving journalists. Sometimes it ends very late. And that's how the White home correspondents work.
I'm a correspondent in the United States. I request to keep my eyes on all the events. In the White House, I go at least a fewer times a week. There were people there that weren't there before.
What do you mean?
People associated not with journalism, but with "influence" with a very circumstantial political option. During earlier administration, there were quite a few people active with various liberal actors. But now there are people who are pro-trumpers. They're not even conservatives or hard right.
There is simply a fresh legion of journalists who have appeared in the White House. These are people who have definitely privileged access to administration.
New cleaning.
There is another thing compared to Trump's first term. He always went to the chopper to stand by journalists, it was a crowd of accredited media representatives.
And sometimes he does, but we see him sitting behind a desk in the Oval Office, where 2 tv crews, a photojournalist, a press journalist, a radio writer and representatives of the alleged fresh media are allowed. This is the fresh category the White home introduced. A full of ten, a twelve people up, which gives Trump more control of what he says.
He himself in 1 conviction on X can bring up the subject of the day.
There's even a fresh word. Trump's platform is called fact Social. "Truth," meaning "truth." And it is said that present the president "true" something. The White home then pastes what Trump had previously placed in his home. fresh fact from the president, meaning "there is fresh fact from president". This has kind of become the main origin of information.
Have we even met the real Trump in his first term? Did the mask just come off?
He has a strong social mandate first due to the fact that he won not only in the electorate college. He besides won the direct election, got a double ticket. Republicans have a majority in the legislature home of Representatives and a crucial advantage in the ultimate Court. Trump, knowing that this is his last term, feels that there are no restrictions.
So he can fulfill his wildest ideas.
What Trump is doing is actually implementing his run announcements. I don't want to say if it's good or bad. But he does what he promised. I frequently hear comments full of surprise, and then people ask, "Well, why are we surprised?"
They chose him.
This is shocking to the point that politicians have been promising 1 thing for decades and the another to do the other. The minute individual came in, who did what he promised, abruptly everyone's jaws go down.
75% of respondents indicated that the US economy is "average" or "weak" – this is 1 of the fresh polls of the University of Massachusetts. So something started to crack.
We're looking at different polls where Trump is underwater. I mean, most of the respondents are negative about what's going on.
Do people have enough?
Trump is trying to talk about how gas prices have fallen. They fell a little, but it's not a drop that would make us jump out of luck with the distributor. It tells us that in any states we pay little than $2 a gallon. On the east coast, fuel costs $3 with a hook. It's inactive a lot.
Gas prices are the problem that can piss off the "normal" Americans?
Yes, due to the fact that in the United States, the economy and transport are based on wheeled transport. The railway network is terrible. Almost all thing you buy here at the store should be delivered by car.
That's why the price of fuel plays a immense role, and the Americans are very attentive. Joe Biden was doing his best before the election to lower the prices at the stations. It was a political play. Trump has even succeeded, but this is far from what Americans would expect.
But it's not just about the price at the stations.
People are afraid of powerful customs and have gone to buy what they can. The global Monetary Fund has announced a forecast that shows an economical downturn in relation to the customs war. It all affects the mood, but there's 1 more thing. We frequently don't realize that.
The stock exchange isn't any kind of elite game for a fewer financiers. Here is the future of their pensions. Social safety state pension, that's pennies. Working Americans save money through program 401(k).
How does it work?
A individual of an American company transfers 5 percent of his wage monthly to an investment pension fund, and his employer equals that amount to 1:1. In any employers this is 5 percent in others may be 6 percent. But anyway, the money put aside by an worker and his employer goes to an investment fund that is on the stock market. erstwhile the stock marketplace drops by 6,000 points, or at the worst minute by almost 10,000, Americans vanish from their retirement account. That's where bad moods come from.
Then why would Trump want this full customs war?
The United States has moved distant from the industrial economy, from production. Trump first realized this, later Biden retained the duties on China that were imposed by Trump. Joe Biden continued what Trump started during his first word and should be remembered.
The Americans realized that they had become hostages of Chinese production. Everyone moved production there due to the fact that it was cheap. And then it turns out she practically disappeared from the U.S. Hence, Trump's action. My conversations with entrepreneurs show that they support Trump on this issue.
The question remains about methods.
Trump chose to force the planet to decision production to the US. This, of course, can hit the United States with a ricochet, due to the fact that the remainder of the planet can deal with China. Trump actually declared a conflict for trade relations with China as early as his first term. They trust on China to drain American know-how, Americans in return get a inexpensive product that is produced in China. This is no uncertainty a war of 2 economical giants.
Let's play a small game. If we put all Donald Trump's ideas and decisions on the pages, what should worry us the most?
I am afraid about Trump's approach to the war in Ukraine. We talk about it frequently with Jack Stawiski on TVN24. Donald Trump truly decided to end this conflict and win a large victory.
It was expected to end in 24 hours.
He is undoubtedly frustrated and impatient that something that would take a while is dragging. However, we inactive see Vladimir Putin doing whatever he wants. erstwhile we talk, "The Washington Post" announces that the United States peace proposition presented to Ukraine assumes that Crimea will be Russian. But actually, I have any regrets for Joe Biden, too, due to the fact that I don't think he did everything he could.
So what should he have done and could he have done?
I believe that there was no determination that there was besides much fear of crossing the red lines that the administration had set itself. The past with MiGs, which Poland decided to pass on to Ukraine, is the best evidence of this.
But this aid to Ukraine was ultimately.
But always late. The transfer of another kind of weapon began with the denial that they did not want to escalate this war. And then Russia did something like that, after the arms were transferred, it was besides late to change the situation on the front line. It was with tanks, Patriots, or F-16s.
A Trump doesn't like Zelenski that much? You said yourself that you haven't seen anything like their White home brawl in 19 years of your work.
There is no uncertainty about Trump's reluctance to the president of Ukraine. The fact that Zelenski was expelled from the Oval Office and later from the White home is possibly the best nonverbal proof of how Trump perceives him To this day, there is simply a dispute whether it was a trap set for Zelenski.
Was she?
One of those right-wing influencers who is simply a partner of Marjorie Taylor Greene, 1 of the more arousing and shocking representatives of the Republican Party, played a function there.
He asked the question, Zelenski, why he's not in a suit and if he even has a suit. Later, Elon Musk appeared in the Oval Office in his T-shirt, and late the president of El Salvador came dressed like that and nobody resented them. It was at least in part set to provoke Zelenski. And today, the Oval Office is simply a game called who screams louder.
Does Trump even want to negociate with Putin?
Trump is no uncertainty losing patience. Hence, late Marco Rubio in Paris gave a clear ultimatum, mainly the Ukrainian side, saying that they had a fewer days to bring their position closer together. For what? The position of the American administration, which is close to Russia.
Putin says he's willing to frost the conflict on the current front line. It's known that Russia is profiting. Donald Trump uses the method of stick and carrot, i.e. carrot for Moscow, stick for Kiev. This doesn't look good.
Then let's go after the band. possibly Trump truly needs to be treated as a Russian agent.
Donald Trump has a weakness for Putin. That is no doubt. I was in Hamburg, where the G20 highest was held, and I think that was erstwhile Trump and Putin first met. It extended so much that Melania Trump had to enter this gathering at any point and demanded that the conversation be terminated.
They were talking 1 on one?
It was a bilateral gathering with the delegation, they didn't talk in private. Later, during dinner in Hamburg, there was a memorable conversation "on the side" between Trump and Putin, where only the interpreter was present.
I besides remember the celebrated Trump conference in Helsinki, where we could not believe what was happening. Trump said he believes more in what Putin says to him than what American intelligence is telling him. There's besides something like Trump's fondness for Putin.
Is it a mania of greatness? It's just a question of who plays who better.
I read various American articles that Putin is the lead in this game. But possibly Trump has an thought that's completely unthinkable.
Is there anyone around Trump that you can call his effective "brake"?
He was surrounded by loyalists in his second term. He wants to fulfill his promises, and he doesn't want anyone to interfere. I'm very curious about individual who doesn't actually talk publicly. On the another hand, everyone agrees that she was behind Trump's triumph in last year's election, and she is the man who has a constructive influence on Trump, or Susie Wiles, the head of his cabinet. possibly she has the function of specified a "brake".
One thing is certain – the last conviction belongs to Donald Trump. He can do so that 1 entry in social media will deny what people from his administration say.
Such management is simply a small meme. And we're inactive talking about the president of the powers.
Let us remember that during Trump's first term, he besides communicated that way. And erstwhile the president was Joe Biden, it happened that he was saying something, and then his surroundings were like, "No, no, no, the president actually meant something else." Meanwhile, if Donald Trump says anything, no 1 questions it for half a second.
Who's Elon Musk in this arrangement?
He is said to be preparing to quit from government efficiency agencies. An agency that is not an agency due to the fact that it has no ministry status. He's a peculiar administrative employee.
No more friends?
I have an impression, but this is my individual opinion that Elon liked another field of his activity. He was an absolute pioneer erstwhile it comes to electrical cars, latest generation space solutions. He builds tunnels under Las Vegas, has all sorts of another ideas. Politics is completely fresh to him. And they found Trump's language. Of course, there are bets in Washington for how long this male relationship can last, due to the fact that both have powerful personalities.
You don't become president of the United States if you don't have a personality, or the richest genius or inventor. Muska can be liked or not, but he's a genius.
Is Trump truly that crucial to him?
There is something between them that constitutes a thread of agreement, although believing the reports of the American media, specified a conflict field was that Musk was to have a secret briefing in the Pentagon on China, which was blocked by the White home due to the fact that Musk has besides much interest in China.
We've got another one. Peter Navarro is the driver of Donald Trump's customs war. Elon Musk said he was stupid as a bag of bricks.
But for now, we have an knowing between Trump and Musk. He flies with Trump aboard Air Force One, they're in constant contact, so it's taking the best.
Joe Biden late stated that the Americans were never divided as much as they are now. Sad diagnosis.
The Americans were divided more due to the fact that we had a civilian War here. These divisions in the United States have always been, but late I found a recording of George Bush delivering a state message, and the head of the home of Representatives was Nancy Pelosi. It was a situation erstwhile the President-in-Office of the United States congratulated the politician and said that it was an honor for him to talk these words.
Republican to a Democrat, a circular of applause, a common smile. Today, something absolutely unthinkable, due to the fact that we had a situation erstwhile Donald Trump gave a speech to the joint chambers of Congress, a Democratic congressman stepped out of his bench and started shouting to Trump. We're light years distant from what was the United States' business card. And of course the Americans are divided now, but we know these divisions from Poland.
Then let's talk about Poland. What do you think, erstwhile you see a Trump of PiS politicians?
President Andrzej Duda visited Donald Trump in fresh York last year. Trump invited him to dinner at his flat in Trump Tower and then "Politico" called Andrzej Duda "the Trump whisperer". That's how they talk about Giorgia Meloni today. She was invited to Mar-a-Lago, Andrew Duda wasn't. She was invited to the presidential inauguration – Andrzej Duda did not. Giorgia Meloni was invited to the White home – Andrzej Duda was not.
Something's stuck.
Somewhere there was a mistake on the Polish side and I get the impression that these contacts during Trump's first word were much more intense. Now we had a fewer minutes of Trump's talk with Duda at the margins of a right-wing conference close Washington. Something's happened out there, and all you gotta do is express regret about it.
I don't think they found Trump's presidential candidate either.
I am not following the Polish run very much, due to the fact that there is so much going on here that I would be completely gray.
Do you always get your American callers asking about Poland? What do they say about their associations?
In the awareness of the Americans, Poland has become primarily a country that has stood absolutely at the tallness of the task and has even done more than 1 could imagine erstwhile it comes to providing assistance to Ukraine. This is something that lives in American consciousness without question.
It's nice, but there are most likely different stereotypes about Poles.
I spoke to various Poles who are here in Washington, D.C., and we talked about the fact that Americans only see Europe bipolarally. I mean, they have east and Western Europe in mind.
They do not let themselves to have Central Europe, where Poland, the Czech Republic or Slovakia are located. For them we are in the same bag as Ukraine, Belarus, or more east.
Well, you didn't.
This is something we're fighting.
I left the hardest question for you at the end. Kraków or Washington?
Definitely retired Kraków. erstwhile I'm a truly old man, it's absolutely in Krakow. America, and especially Washington is simply a hard area to live in and so infernally costly that it just doesn't fit in your head.
Marcin Wrona as a peaceful retirement?
Marcin Wrona in a real retirement would totally freak out due to the fact that I gotta have injections of energy and adrenaline. But my partner's skiing, going up and down the mountain, doing all sorts of weird things and kicking my ass so I'm as active. It may be that if I retire, I will have more to do (Laughter).
