A deal to build a United States military base in Poland nicknamed "Fort Trump" by the country's right-wing president is nearly finished — and it will likely anger Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
Bloomberg News reported that people familiar with the deal confirmed it's close to completion even as President Donald Trump has declined to publicly endorse the proposed base.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, the country's far-right leader whose anti-immigrant rhetoric mimics the American president's, coined the "Fort Trump" nickname and pledged $2 billion towards the base's construction, the report noted.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was supposed to meet with US National Security Adviser John Bolton in Washington this week to discuss the project, but according to two people familiar with the matter, the trip has been postponed. Morawiecki is instead visiting New York and Chicago.
Though an NSC spokesperson said the panel has "nothing to announce at this time," Bloomberg's sources said the base plan "is now being considered in what’s known as an inter-agency process led by the Defense Department with input from Bolton."
Officials with the Polish government also brought up the plan when Vice President Mike Pence visited their country in February, Bloomberg's sources said.
Poland, the report noted, has been vying for an American presence in the country after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, a neighboring country, in 2014.
The Kremlin is likely to consider the construction of an American base in Poland a "provocation," the report noted.