WASHINGTON (AP) — In a relative rarity for presidential elections, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have long records on foreign policy and clearly stated positions on many of the world's hot spots.
Trump's allies at the Republican National Convention that Biden has weakened America's standing abroad and permitted the outbreak of conflicts between Russia and Ukraine as well as the Israelis and Palestinians. Biden, a Democrat who ran four years ago on a , argues that he has restored U.S. standing abroad.
Here's a look at their records on key conflicts.
Afghanistan
One of Biden’s weakest arguments on foreign policy is the U.S. .
The chaotic events of July, August and September of 2021 posed one of the first international challenges for the relatively young Biden administration. At least 13 American servicemen and women in the midst of the withdrawal.
Biden, who had dating to his time as vice president under Barack Obama, defended his decision to pull out, saying the goals of the original invasion after the 9/11 terrorist attacks two decades earlier had been accomplished.
However, Biden administration officials also blamed Trump for leaving them with a vague and unfinished plan for withdrawal — and one that had little or no input from the U.S.-backed Afghan government in Kabul.
In February 2020, the Trump administration to withdraw U.S. forces by May 2021. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Doha, Qatar to witness the signing of the deal, which was negotiated without the direct input of the Afghan government, and met with the Taliban’s chief negotiator to cement it.
As 2020 progressed through the presidential election in November that Biden won, there was little movement in planning for the eventual withdrawal, although American troops were gradually drawn down. just six days after the November election.
After Biden took office in January 2021, his White House struggled to reconcile the new president’s desire to withdraw from Afghanistan on the timeline committed to by the previous administration. After the May deadline passed, the Taliban and made significant territorial gains. When the Biden administration announced that in September 2021, and then moved up the deadline, the Taliban increased its assaults, resulting in the fall of Kabul and the chaos that ensued.
The Middle East, Iran and Yemen
Trump was an unabashed supporter of Israel while he was in office.
Against advice from numerous foreign policy veterans, he unilaterally . Previous Republican and Democratic administrations had refused to take this step due to competing Israeli and Palestinian claims on the holy city. Trump also , a territory seized and occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war about which the U.S. had not taken a position.
In addition, in moves all since reversed by Biden, Trump and programs aimed at supporting Palestinian self-governance and rescinded a 1970s State Department determination that are “illegitimate” under international law.
At the same time, Trump sought to promote Middle East peace by bypassing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. He also proposed what , but that plan was roundly rejected by both Palestinians and many of their Arab allies.
Trump claims the Israel-Hamas war would never have happened had he been in office. But it is impossible to know if Trump could have prevented the current war. Some experts believe that Trump’s alienation of the Palestinians may have contributed to the conditions that led to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that started the conflict last fall.
Iran
In 2016, Trump campaigned on the idea that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a signature foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration, was the “worst” diplomatic agreement ever negotiated by the United States. Trump’s argument was that the deal – which gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program – gave away too much and created a path for Iran to develop nuclear weapons once the time-limited restrictions in the agreement expired.
After several fits and starts, Trump and embarked on a “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran that resulted in a wave of new and hard-hitting sanctions against Iranian entities. One top target of those sanctions was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the administration declared a “foreign terrorist organization” for its support of anti-Israel and anti-US groups operating throughout the Middle East, including in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
In January 2020, the Trump administration at the airport in Baghdad, leading to threats of retaliation from Iranian officials against Trump and several of his top national security aides that continue to this day. U.S. authorities for Trump after detecting what they said was an Iranian threat on his life, but say that threat was unrelated to the that took place at his rally Saturday in Pennsylvania.
When the Biden administration took office, it declared its intent to try to resurrect the nuclear deal, arguing that it was the best way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons without military conflict. Biden that Trump had imposed but efforts to revive the deal failed after repeated attempts.
In August 2023, the Biden administration and Iran would be released to banks in Qatar in return for the release of five detained Americans in Iran. Republicans heavily criticized the agreement, saying it would help Iran fund terrorism, although administration officials have said the money cannot be used for anything other than humanitarian goods. As recently as last month, none of the cash has been released for any purpose, senior administration officials said.
Yemen
In one of its last acts in office, the Trump administration were a “foreign terrorist organization,” a move that many aid agencies criticized because they said it would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
The Biden administration with an eye toward improving conditions on the ground, but that has met with mixed results. While the crisis continues, the Houthis have continued their attacks inside Yemen and on Saudi Arabia and, since the Gaza war erupted last year, they have increasingly turned their sights on Israeli, U.S., British and other western .
North Korea
When he was elected president, Trump was told by his predecessor, Obama, that North Korea and its nuclear and missile programs represented the greatest threat to the United States. The threat from North Korea and reached a high point in 2017 when Pyongyang tested an inter-continental ballistic missile and at least one nuclear device.
Tensions reached a high point that September when Trump began referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “ ” and warning that any attack on the U.S. would be met by “fire, fury, and frankly power the likes of which the world has never seen before.”
Several months later, the two sides agreed to reduce tensions and, in a , laid the groundwork for Trump’s meeting – the first of three – with Kim in Singapore in June 2018. As a result of that summit and the two subsequent ones, North Korea suspended its missile and nuclear tests but attempts to secure a lasting deal failed.
Since Biden took office, North Korea has .
China
The Trump administration adopted a hard line on China, imposing as well as targeting and then .
Although the Biden administration has sought to improve ties with China, including , it has largely left in place the sanctions imposed by Trump’s team. The Biden administration now accuses China of bolstering Russia’s defense industrial sector to allow it to continue and step up attacks against Ukraine.
The Trump administration also upgraded U.S. ties with Taiwan, allowing for more senior-level meetings between the two sides and stepping up arms sales to the island, which China regards as its own. The Trump administration also forcefully condemned China’s increasing aggressiveness in the South China Sea, anti-democratic actions in Hong Kong and repression in the western region of Xinjiang. The Biden administration has not altered those positions.
Europe, Russia, Ukraine and NATO
As president, Trump inherited a situation in which Russia had not only but . Trump believed, and apparently still does, that his could resolve these issues, yet neither did.
Although Trump did authorize the transfer of some offensive weapons to Ukraine, U.S.-Ukrainian relations took a hit with by members of Biden’s family by withholding additional military aid. That led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Trump has also been more broadly in Europe and Asia. He has repeatedly taken credit for more NATO members meeting their pledge to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense, although the vast majority of the 23 allies now meeting that goal did so while Biden has been president.
Matthew Lee, The Associated Press
