Poland appears to be in a state of constitutional crisis on Friday after Prime Minister Donald Tusk sent police to install a loyalist to control the nation's constitutional court, in defiance of President Karol Nawrocki and the judicial body.

Video footage showed police entering the Constitutional Tribunal on Friday evening. President Nawrocki was en route to Senegal, but has turned his plane around to address the situation.

"Restoring the rule of law is our duty. After years of PiS-led lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way," Tusk posted on X.

Nawrocki issued only a limited comment in response, saying "At such a moment, the President must be in Poland. I'm interrupting my flight to Senegal. I'm returning."

Law and Justice Party Leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski opined that Poland was "becoming a police state."

Polish MEP Grzegorz Braun, a far-right politician, likened Tusk's actions to a coup in 1926 and called for Poland to leave the EU outright.

United States Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose urged the situation to remain peaceful and cautioned it not to spiral, warning in a lengthy X post that "thousands gathering outside the Tribunal make an already dangerous situation more combustible."

"America is on Poland’s side. It is not our place to judge or interfere in its internal affairs," Rose wrote. "Our concern is for the stability, security, and democratic future of a country we are proud to call our friend and ally.

"I hope everyone involved—government officials, law enforcement, and demonstrators alike, to take a deep breath, and don’t take any action that could provoke violence or further escalation," Rose said.

"Americans and [President Trump] care deeply about this country, its democracy, and its future," he continued. "But Poland’s strength ultimately must come from within—from its people, its institutions, and their shared commitment to the rule of law. Poland has come too far and accomplished too much to let political differences, no matter how strongly felt, put any of that at risk."

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.