Washington
CNN
—
The foreign policy positions of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have sometimes seemed like an afterthought in an election dominated by domestic issues.
But with two raging wars, growing global instability and a shift toward right-wing isolationism at home and abroad, it will be hard for Biden and Trump to avoid the topic when they debate Thursday night in Atlanta.
Biden’s team wants to make domestic issues like the economy and reproductive rights a central part of his reelection argument, but foreign policy is where Biden has focused most of his time during his first term, and he made back-to-back trips to Europe just before Thursday’s debate.
The president’s aides freely admit that, especially since October 7, events overseas have often (and more than his team would like) diverted the president’s attention from important domestic issues.
Unlike previous presidential elections, there will be no debates solely on foreign policy, which has traditionally been a platform for Republican and Democratic candidates to sharply contrast the state of the world.
Instead, Biden’s advisers expect those issues could emerge as part of a broader discussion that plays out on the debate stage Thursday in Atlanta.To that end, the president’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is one of more than a dozen senior advisers accompanying Biden to Camp David this week to lead the group’s discussion of foreign policy, according to a source familiar with the preparations.
While Biden’s team wants to focus on domestic issues, it has long viewed foreign policy as one of the clearest ways to differentiate himself from Trump when it comes to presidential leadership.
A senior campaign official told CNN the contrast Biden is trying to draw could not be starker when foreign policy issues come up on Thursday night.
“President Biden will stand up to dictators and defend freedom. President Trump is too dangerous, too reckless a loser and should never approach the Oval Office again,” the official said.
Trump has repeatedly accused Biden of presiding over a chaotic world, which Biden says was far calmer during his four years in office.
A potential challenge for Biden and his advisers will be figuring out where he stands on several foreign policy fronts from Trump, who has said little substantively about the Gaza war but lightly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of the conflict and urged him to end it.
Regarding Ukraine, Trump insisted that Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine never happened while he was in office and promised to resolve the conflict one day, but did not say how.
While Trump has taken a tough stance on China, promising to impose tough tariffs on all Chinese imports, his record as president has been more conciliatory, forging trade deals that Beijing later abandoned.
Trump’s ambiguous positions on foreign policy reflect his approach during his time in office, when he often cited personal feelings and instincts to explain tactics such as meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
But that could make it more difficult for Biden to lay out a clear line of attack.The president is instead more likely to highlight ways in which he has strengthened U.S. leadership on the world stage, strengthened U.S. alliances and defended democracy abroad, campaign officials said.
As for Trump, Biden is expected to launch a broad attack on him, saying he has abandoned America’s allies, cozyed up to dictators and made the world overall more dangerous.
“Donald Trump has consistently praised authoritarian leaders and dictators, vowed to betray our allies and undermine our democracy,” the official added.
As in other areas, the Biden team is relying on Trump’s own words to frame its attacks — for example, Trump’s remark that Russia would be “encouraged” to “do whatever it wants” if NATO allies don’t spend enough on defense is a moment Biden has repeatedly used to criticize his predecessor’s leadership.
And Trump’s vow to act as a “dictator” on his first day in office gave Biden the opportunity to warn of the global repercussions if Trump returns to office.
Still, the political risks to Biden’s foreign policy are many. The war in Gaza has angered progressives, many of whom accuse him of fueling a humanitarian crisis by arming Israel.
But he has also received little praise from Republicans, who have accused Trump of abandoning Israel by suspending deliveries of certain heavy bombs.
Netanyahu has not made things any easier for Biden by accusing the administration of delaying arms deliveries and taking an ambiguous stance on a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal that Biden hopes would end the fighting.
On Ukraine, the president has successfully rallied Western nations to support Kiev, but Trump has taken an isolationist stance and opposes any additional aid.
Biden has said that could make the country vulnerable to Russian aggression, but Trump’s position has resonated with Republicans, who have accused the president of ignoring problems at home while sending billions of dollars overseas.
Ultimately, the biggest risk for Biden is appearing to place too much emphasis on foreign affairs, to the detriment of the issues facing everyday Americans.
Speaking alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Group of Seven summit in Italy earlier this month, Biden acknowledged that the war in Ukraine was a “test for the world,” testing Western resolve amid rising inflation and nationalism.
“Will we stand with Ukraine? Will we defend sovereignty and freedom and oppose tyranny?” he said. “The United States, the G7 and countries around the world have consistently answered that question with, ‘Yes we will,’ and we will say it again. Yes, again and again.”
